bibtex-mcp

CLI and MCP server for fetching multiple BibTeX options from Google Scholar's visible citation export flow.

What Was Reverse Engineered

Google Scholar search results include a per-result Scholar id in the result container. The visible Cite button loads:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=info:{scholarId}:scholar.google.com/&output=cite&scirp={rank}&hl=en

That citation dialog HTML contains a signed scholar.bib link on scholar.googleusercontent.com. This package follows that same two-step flow:

1. Search Scholar for the paper title.
2. Read the result ids from the Scholar result HTML.
3. Follow All versions links for preprint/unknown rows so archival versions hidden behind an arXiv result can be found.
4. Fetch the matching citation dialog HTML.
5. Extract and fetch Scholar's BibTeX link.
6. Rank options so archival conference/journal/publisher records come before preprints when Scholar exposes both.

The tool does not bypass CAPTCHA, paywalls, rate limits, or access controls.

Install

npm install
npm run build

CLI

npm run cli -- "Attention Is All You Need"
npm run cli -- --exact --json "Attention Is All You Need"
npm run cli -- --limit 20 --json "Attention Is All You Need"

After a global install or npm link:

scholar-bibtex "Attention Is All You Need"

MCP

Build first, then configure your MCP client to run:

node /absolute/path/to/bibtex-mcp/dist/mcp.js

Install With add-mcp

For a local checkout:

npm install
npm run build
npx add-mcp "node $(pwd)/dist/mcp.js" --name scholar-bibtex -a codex -y

For a published npm package:

npx add-mcp bibtex-mcp --name scholar-bibtex -a codex -y

Equivalently, use the explicit stdio command form:

npx add-mcp "npx -y bibtex-mcp" --name scholar-bibtex -a codex -y

You can also install directly from the public GitHub repo:

npx add-mcp "npx -y github:aryankeluskar/bibtex-mcp" --name scholar-bibtex -a codex -y

Change -a codex to another supported agent such as claude-code, cursor, vscode, or opencode.

The server exposes one tool:

google_scholar_bibtex

Input:

{
  "query": "Attention Is All You Need",
  "maxResults": 10,
  "exactTitle": false
}

Agent Skill

This repo includes an installable skill for agents that use the skills CLI:

npx skills add aryankeluskar/bibtex-mcp --skill google-scholar-bibtex-mcp --full-depth

From a local checkout, list or install it with:

npx skills add . --list --full-depth
npx skills add . --skill google-scholar-bibtex-mcp --full-depth -y

The skill tells agents how to install this MCP with add-mcp, call google_scholar_bibtex, and select archival records over preprints.

Stress Test

Run the deterministic stress test without hitting Google Scholar:

npm run stress

The stress test uses fixture mode to validate the CLI, stdio MCP concurrency, archival ranking, and add-mcp Codex project config generation.

Accuracy Notes

The BibTeX is sourced from Google Scholar's citation export, which is better than generated citations but still not infallible. Scholar can contain duplicate records, incomplete metadata, or venue variants.

By default the tool returns multiple options and ranks likely archival records above preprints. It also follows Scholar All versions clusters for non-archival rows so the conference or journal version can outrank a top-level preprint result. The ranking uses signals from the Scholar row, such as venue text and publisher/proceedings domains. For camera-ready bibliographies, pick the highest-ranked archival option whose title and venue match the paper PDF, proceedings page, DOI/Crossref, or publisher page.