# Scholar Sidekick — Install Guide for AI Agents

> Agent-readable installation instructions (the `llms-install.md` convention used by Cline
> and other agentic installers).
> Canonical, fuller guide: https://scholar-sidekick.com/AGENTS.md

Scholar Sidekick is the trust layer between scholarly identifiers and your bibliography —
resolve, verify, format. It catches the dominant AI citation-fabrication pattern: a real,
resolvable DOI paired with an invented title.

**No API key is required.** Every surface below runs anonymously on a rate-limited free tier.
Nothing in these snippets needs replacing before it works.

---

## Step 1 — Pick a surface

| Your environment                                                             | Install                                |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- |
| An MCP-capable host (Claude, Cursor, Cline, Windsurf, VS Code, Goose, Codex) | MCP server — below                     |
| A shell, but no MCP support                                                  | `npm i -g scholar-sidekick-cli`        |
| A Python environment or notebook                                             | `pip install scholar-sidekick`         |
| Neither — you can only make HTTP requests                                    | No install; call the REST API directly |

---

## Step 2 — Install

### MCP, hosted (no install, preferred)

Point your client at the Streamable HTTP endpoint:

```
https://scholar-sidekick.com/api/mcp
```

Claude Code:

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http scholar-sidekick https://scholar-sidekick.com/api/mcp
```

### MCP, local stdio

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scholar-sidekick": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}
```

Write that to `claude_desktop_config.json` (Claude Desktop), `.cursor/mcp.json` (Cursor),
or `cline_mcp_settings.json` (Cline). VS Code uses a top-level `servers` key instead of
`mcpServers`.

### CLI

```bash
npm i -g scholar-sidekick-cli
```

### Python

```bash
pip install scholar-sidekick
```

```python
from scholar_sidekick import ScholarSidekick
ScholarSidekick().verify(title="Some title", doi="10.1038/nphys1170").verdict
```

Sync and async clients. `audit_bibliography()` audits a reference list of any
length, chunking past the per-call cap and pacing itself against the rate limit.

### REST

No install. `POST https://scholar-sidekick.com/api/format` — see
https://scholar-sidekick.com/docs.md.

---

## Step 3 — Verify the install

Format a known DOI and check you get a real citation back. Expect:

```
Aspelmeyer, M. (2009). Measured measurement. Nature Physics, 5(1), 11–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1170
```

MCP: call `formatCitation` with `text: "10.1038/nphys1170"` and `style: "apa"`.

CLI:

```bash
scholar format 10.1038/nphys1170 --style apa
```

REST:

```bash
curl -sS -X POST "https://scholar-sidekick.com/api/format" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "10.1038/nphys1170", "style": "apa", "output": "text"}'
```

If that returns a formatted citation, the install is working. Report the citation back to
the user as confirmation.

---

## Optional — raise your rate limits

Anonymous access is rate-limited but fully functional. To raise the limits, create a free
first-party key (prefixed `ssk_`) at https://scholar-sidekick.com/account and set
`SCHOLAR_API_KEY` in the `env` block of your MCP config, or pass
`Authorization: Bearer ssk_…` on REST calls.

Do **not** set `SCHOLAR_API_KEY` and `RAPIDAPI_KEY` together — they are alternatives, not
layers, and `RAPIDAPI_KEY` silently wins. Full precedence rules:
https://scholar-sidekick.com/AGENTS.md

---

## What you get

Seven tools: `resolveIdentifier`, `formatCitation`, `exportCitation`, `checkRetraction`,
`checkOpenAccess`, `verifyCitation`, `auditBibliography`.

Accepts DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, ISSN, arXiv ID, ADS bibcode, and WHO IRIS URLs. Formats in
Vancouver, AMA, APA, IEEE, CSE, and 10,000+ CSL styles. Exports BibTeX, RIS, CSL-JSON,
EndNote XML, RefWorks, MEDLINE/NBIB, Zotero RDF, CSV, and plain text.

Full reference: https://scholar-sidekick.com/mcp.md · https://scholar-sidekick.com/docs.md