An astronaut overseeing a futuristic data hub
Download PDFMarkdown Version

Connect Semantic Scholar to ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini

Set it up once and it works in ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and any other client you love. It all runs safely in the background, so you can relax and focus on what really matters. Access a massive knowledge graph of 200 million papers.

Ask AI about this Connector

Developed, maintained, and hosted by Vinkius.

MCP VERIFIED · PRODUCTION READY · VINKIUS GUARANTEED

Waiting for input…

Works with modern AI clients that support MCP, including ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and more.

ChatGPTClaudeCursorPerplexityGeminiMicrosoft CopilotRaycastMeta AI

Your AI does the work. We keep it safe and sound.

No other AI tool gives you this. Your workflow runs in the client you already love, your account stays protected, and you decide what the agent can and cannot do. It is the whole reason to make the switch.

Each Connector lives inside our infrastructure, the same place where your workflow runs. The three things below are already part of it, working quietly in the background so you never have to think about them. Nothing to add, nothing to set up, nothing to worry about.

A futuristic MCP client docking bay
V8 Isolate01

Each Connector runs inside its own sealed environment.

Each Connector runs inside its own sealed V8 runtime — no access to your files, your system, or other servers. A Connector never sees past its own request.

Kill Switch02

One switch stops every agent. Instantly.

One action deactivates every Connector, revokes every token, and ends every session at once. AI Governance keeps the record.

FinOps per User03

Spending limits that pause instead of surprise.

Every user keeps their own connections and credentials, isolated from everyone else. Anything that would cross your spending limit is held for your approval, not billed.

Three controls, built into the layer your AI connects through.

Curated set · 4 capabilities

We ship only the actions that matter.

Capability set01 / 01

01-04

4 capabilities in this set.

Part of 4 available through Semantic Scholar.

  1. 01

    Search semantic author

    This capability finds researchers and retrieves their specific publication metrics. It returns paper counts, total citations, and h-index data for any academic.

  2. 02

    Search semantic scholar

    This capability searches through 200 million academic works. It provides AI-generated TLDR summaries, citation counts, and influential citation scores across STEM fields.

  3. 03

    Get semantic citations

    This capability identifies all papers that have cited a specific work. It is designed for building citation graphs and conducting impact analysis.

  4. 04

    Get semantic paper

    This capability retrieves full details for a specific paper. You can provide a Semantic Scholar ID, DOI, ArXiv ID, or PMID to get the data.

Real work

What teams actually run

01

Literature Reviews

An agent builds a list of foundational papers by following citation chains from a single starting point.

02

Talent Scouting

An R&D team uses the agent to find top researchers in a specific field based on their h-index.

03

Rapid Paper Screening

A researcher asks the agent to find papers on a specific topic and summarizes them to save time.

04

Impact Verification

A user checks if a paper is actually influential by looking at its influential citation count rather than just total citations.

Automate a task

Put Semantic Scholar to work on one thing.

Step-by-step automations your AI runs through this Connector: the workflow, the prompts to start with, and the exact capabilities behind each move.

One connector, every AI

Semantic Scholar works with the most popular AI clients.

These are the most popular clients, each with a step-by-step guide: one link, set up once, with governance and visibility built in. And because everything runs on the MCP standard, the same connection also works in any other compatible client — nothing to rebuild.

ClaudeClaudeChatGPTChatGPTGeminiGeminiPerplexityPerplexityGrokGrokMicrosoft CopilotMicrosoft CopilotCursorCursorVS CodeVS CodeWindsurfWindsurfJetBrainsJetBrainsClineClineLangChainLangChainVercel AI SDKVercel AI SDKLovableLovableZ.aiZ.aiRaycastRaycastQwen CodeQwen CodeKimi CodeKimi CodeLe ChatLe Chat

Building your own app? The connector is yours to use.

You don't need a client to put Semantic Scholar to work: the same hosted connection plugs into your own applications and agent code, with the same governance on every request. Build with it, chat with it — one connection for both.

Observed, not estimated

925ms average. Fast in production.

Semantic Scholar is checked daily against the live service.

Daily averagePeak 1224ms
Oct 3Today
Fastest day
726ms
Slowest day
1224ms
14-day trend
Slowing+14%

Connect your client

One URL. Every client.

Activate the Connector, copy your link, and paste it into the client you already use. 4 capabilities arrive ready to run.

Preview access · not provider authentication

The vk_preview_* token belongs to Vinkius preview infrastructure. It lets Claude discover and display the capabilities of Semantic Scholar, so you can see the experience inside your AI.

It does not authenticate your account with Semantic Scholar. Actions requiring credentials or live account data may not run until you activate the Connector and authorize the service.

Semantic Scholar Connector

You're all set. Choose your MCP client and follow the setup instructions.

Connector linkhttps://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_8zAprfIHUkrZA9BorlGo4lSh4aqrzDrrqy7KLAZz/mcp

Claude Desktop

Follow the steps below to connect in seconds.

  1. 1In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Connectors.
  2. 2Click “Add custom connector” and paste the connector link above as the remote MCP server URL.
  3. 3Click Add and start a new chat — Semantic Scholar capabilities are ready to use.
Configuration · claude_desktop_config.jsonCopy
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "semantic-scholar-mcp": {
      "url": "https://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_8zAprfIHUkrZA9BorlGo4lSh4aqrzDrrqy7KLAZz/mcp"
    }
  }
}
  • Claude
  • ChatGPT
  • Cursor
  • VS Code
  • Windsurf
  • Claude Code
  • JetBrains
  • Cline

Step-by-step instructions for each client are in the guide. How to connect

Guided setup for Claude? Set up Semantic Scholar in Claude and other AIs

See all the AI clients this connector works with ↑

Who it's for

Built for the work Semantic Scholar owners hand off.

This MCP is built for professionals who need to interact with massive scientific datasets through a conversational interface.

  • 01

    AI/ML Researchers

    They hand off the task of scanning thousands of papers to the agent to find relevant breakthroughs.

  • 02

    Graduate Students

    They use the agent to automate the construction of literature reviews and citation maps.

  • 03

    R&D Teams

    They use the agent to evaluate researcher impact and h-index metrics for talent scouting.

FAQ

Questions Semantic Scholar owners ask.

  • 01

    Do I need an API key for Semantic Scholar?

    No, basic usage does not require an API key. Vinkius manages the connection for you.

  • 02

    Which AI clients can use this MCP?

    You can use this with any MCP-compatible client, including Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

  • 03

    What kind of papers are included?

    The database includes over 200 million academic works, covering STEM fields like Computer Science, Medicine, Biology, and Physics.

  • 04

    How does it handle paper identification?

    The MCP can find papers using Semantic Scholar IDs, DOIs, ArXiv IDs, or PubMed IDs.

  • 05

    What is an influential citation?

    An influential citation is one that meaningfully builds upon the cited work, providing a more accurate measure of impact than a simple citation count.

  • 06

    Do I need an API key to use Semantic Scholar?

    No API key is required for basic usage. The public API provides 5,000 requests per 5 minutes shared among unauthenticated users. For higher throughput, academic and institutional users can request a free API key at semanticscholar.org, which grants dedicated rate limits of 1–10 requests per second depending on the endpoint.

  • 07

    What is the TLDR feature and how does it work?

    TLDR (Too Long; Didn't Read) is an AI-generated one-sentence summary of each paper, powered by Allen AI's SciTLDR NLP model. It distills the key contribution or finding of a paper into a single, easily digestible sentence. ideal for quickly scanning relevance without reading an entire abstract or paper.

  • 08

    What is the difference between total citations and influential citations?

    Total citations count every paper that references the work. Influential citations are a subset. papers where the cited work meaningfully contributes to the citing paper's research (not just a passing mention in the related work section). This metric is calculated by Semantic Scholar's AI models and provides a much more accurate measure of real scientific impact.

Explore

More in The Unthinkable

Suggestions

Connect Semantic Scholar to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT & more