Scholar Sidekick is available as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. This lets AI assistants such as Claude, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible clients resolve scholarly identifiers, format citations, and export bibliography files — directly within a conversation.
The MCP server exposes three tools:
All three tools accept multiple identifiers in a single request (separated by newlines), so batch operations work out of the box.
10.1056/NEJMoa2033700)PMID:30049270)PMC7793608)ISBN:9780192854087)2301.08745)Identifiers are auto-detected and normalised. You can mix types freely in a single batch request.
The Scholar Sidekick MCP server works with any client that supports the Model Context Protocol, including:
The MCP server authenticates via a RapidAPI key. If you already have a Scholar Sidekick API subscription on RapidAPI, the same key works for MCP access. A free tier is available for testing and light use.
The MCP server connects to the Scholar Sidekick API at https://scholar-sidekick.p.rapidapi.com. Authentication uses your RapidAPI key, passed via the RAPIDAPI_KEY environment variable.
Add the following to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):
{
"mcpServers": {
"scholar-sidekick": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest"],
"env": {
"RAPIDAPI_KEY": "your-rapidapi-key"
}
}
}
}claude mcp add scholar-sidekick \ -e RAPIDAPI_KEY=your-rapidapi-key \ -- npx -y scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest
Add to .cursor/mcp.json or .vscode/mcp.json in your project:
{
"mcpServers": {
"scholar-sidekick": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest"],
"env": {
"RAPIDAPI_KEY": "your-rapidapi-key"
}
}
}
}| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
RAPIDAPI_KEY | Yes | Your RapidAPI subscription key |
RAPIDAPI_HOST | No | RapidAPI host (defaults to scholar-sidekick.p.rapidapi.com) |
SCHOLAR_SIDEKICK_TIMEOUT_MS | No | Request timeout in milliseconds (default: 30000) |
The MCP integration is well suited to workflows such as:
The same principles apply as with the web tool and API: Scholar Sidekick handles the citation formatting so you can stay focused on the work.
Once connected, you can ask your AI assistant things like:
The assistant will call the appropriate Scholar Sidekick tools and return the results directly in the conversation.
The MCP server wraps the same Scholar Sidekick API that powers the web tool and RapidAPI integration. The underlying resolution, formatting, and export logic is identical. MCP simply provides a standardised interface for AI assistants to call those same endpoints.