OpenAlex MCP Server

Chat with AI and run tools instantly.

Search scholarly works, pull paper metadata, and walk citation networks from chat — OpenAlex is an open catalog of the global research system.

Best forAcademic ResearchersPhD StudentsR&DLiterature Review Leads

Try this workflow

Find papers on a topic

Search OpenAlex for recent work on large language model interpretability, list the strongest matches with titles and authors, and note publication years.

Chat with AI

Managed

Open catalog

3 tools

Agent guide included

Chat with AI and run tools instantly.

Browse all tools

What you can do with OpenAlex

Built for

Academic Researchers, PhD Students, R&D Teams, Literature Review Leads

Example workflows

Find papers on a topic

Topic discovery through work search before deeper reading.

Try this

Search OpenAlex for recent work on large language model interpretability, list the strongest matches with titles and authors, and note publication years.

Look up one paper

Single-work lookup when you already have a DOI or OpenAlex ID.

Try this

Pull OpenAlex metadata for the paper with DOI 10.48550/arXiv.1706.03762 — title, authors, abstract, and open-access links in plain language.

Map who cites a landmark study

Citation expansion for literature reviews and impact scans.

Try this

Find Attention Is All You Need in OpenAlex, then list papers that cite it and group the citing work by theme.

Build a reading list

Combines search, metadata, and citation context into review material.

Try this

Search OpenAlex for transformer efficiency papers since 2023, fetch details for the top ten, and outline a literature review with gaps to explore.

Context to know first

What is OpenAlex MCP?

It lets AI agents in Cursor, Claude, or ChatGPT search OpenAlex — an open catalog of scholarly works — retrieve paper metadata, and explore who cites whom after you add the server in MCPBundles.

Who is OpenAlex MCP for?

Researchers, grad students, and R&D teams running literature reviews, citation scans, and background research who want answers in chat instead of tab-hopping across discovery tools.

Can an agent explore citations from chat?

Yes. Search for a work, open its metadata, then list papers that cite it to map influence, find follow-on studies, or pressure-test a claim.

Related editorial

OpenAlex Literature Review Workflows with AI

How AI agents can search OpenAlex, pull paper metadata, walk citation networks, and build reading lists for literature reviews without tab-hopping across discovery tools.

Read article

AI Skill
SKILL.md

Domain knowledge for OpenAlex — workflow patterns, data models, and gotchas for your AI agent.

OpenAlex

OpenAlex is an open catalog of the global research system. Search works, retrieve work metadata, and expand citations using an open citation graph.

Data Model

Works — scholarly publications; search returns work IDs for detail and citation fetches.
Citations — works that cite a given work; scoped by work_id.

Gotchas

Resolve names to IDs: Do not filter works by author display name. Search /authors first, then filter works by authorships.author.id.
Search cost: search calls are heavier than singleton lookups. Prefer work-id or DOI fetches when you already have an identifier.
Rate limits: Back off on HTTP 429 and avoid tight retry loops in one agent run.
Missing works: A DOI or OpenAlex ID that is not in the catalog returns {available: false, reason: work_not_found} — search first when the identifier may be wrong.

Tools in this Server (3)

Openalex Get Work

Fetch a single OpenAlex work by OpenAlex ID or DOI and return full metadata including referenced works and citation count.

Openalex List Citations

List OpenAlex works that cite the given work ID (citation expansion).

Openalex Search Works

Search OpenAlex works (papers) and return metadata plus OpenAlex IDs. Use returned work IDs for single-work metadata fetches or citation expansion.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is OpenAlex MCP?

It lets AI agents in Cursor, Claude, or ChatGPT search OpenAlex — an open catalog of scholarly works — retrieve paper metadata, and explore who cites whom after you add the server in MCPBundles.

Who is OpenAlex MCP for?

Researchers, grad students, and R&D teams running literature reviews, citation scans, and background research who want answers in chat instead of tab-hopping across discovery tools.

Can an agent explore citations from chat?

Yes. Search for a work, open its metadata, then list papers that cite it to map influence, find follow-on studies, or pressure-test a claim.

Do I need a paid account?

Basic search works after you connect the server. For heavy daily use, add optional free access from OpenAlex settings in MCPBundles — OpenAlex includes a small daily allowance for registered users.

How do I connect OpenAlex to my AI agent?

Add the MCPBundles server URL to your MCP client configuration (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, etc.). The URL format is: https://mcp.mcpbundles.com/bundle/openalex. Authentication is handled automatically.

How many tools does OpenAlex provide?

OpenAlex provides 3 tools that can be called by AI agents, along with a SKILL.md that gives your AI agent domain knowledge about when and how to use them.

What authentication does OpenAlex require?

OpenAlex uses open data APIs — no authentication required.

Setup Instructions

Connect OpenAlex to any MCP client in minutes

MCP URL

https://mcp.mcpbundles.com/bundle/openalex

Claude.ai Cursor VS Code VS Code Insiders Goose LM Studio Cherry Studio ChatGPT

One-click install:

Install on Claude.ai Install for organization (admins)

The link prefills the Add custom connector dialog — you still review the values and click Add, then Connect to complete OAuth.

Or add manually

Open claude.ai → Settings → Connectors.
Click the + button and choose Add custom connector.
Set Name to OpenAlex and paste the MCP URL into Remote MCP server URL.
Click Add. OpenAlex will appear under Not connected — select it and click Connect to complete OAuth.