How do I install Paperport?

Paperport is a local plugin. Install it using npm package: @reneturcios/paperport and add the generated configuration snippet to your AI app's MCP config file. Then restart your AI app.

Is Paperport safe to use?

Paperport scored 5.6/10 (moderate risk) in MCP Marketplace's automated security scan. It has 2 high or critical findings to review. It's listed, but review the security report on this page before installing.

What AI apps work with Paperport?

Paperport uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and works with any MCP-compatible AI app, including Claude, ChatGPT / Codex, Gemini, Copilot, Cursor, and more.

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Paperport MCP Server

by CloudCorpRecords

Developer ToolsModerate5.6MCP RegistryLocal

Free

Server data from the Official MCP Registry

Search and read arXiv papers, with local paper storage.

About

Search and read arXiv papers, with local paper storage.

Security Report

5.6

Moderate5.6Moderate Risk

paperport is a small arXiv client that needs no credentials and whose network and file access match its stated purpose of searching arXiv and keeping a local shelf of papers. The main concerns are minor: paper ids are only partly validated, which leaves a backslash path-traversal edge case on Windows, and text fetched from arXiv is returned to the assistant unfiltered, so prompt injection is possible. No malicious patterns, hardcoded secrets, or shell execution were found. Supply chain analysis found 4 known vulnerabilities in dependencies (0 critical, 2 high severity). Package verification found 1 issue.

8 files analyzed · 10 issues found

Security scores are indicators to help you make informed decisions, not guarantees. Always review permissions before connecting any MCP server.

Permissions Required

This plugin requests these system permissions. Most are normal for its category.

HTTP Network Access

Connects to external APIs or services over the internet.

File System Read

Reads files on your machine. Normal for tools that analyze or process local data.

File System Write

Writes or modifies files on your machine. Check that this is expected for the tool.

env_vars

Check that this permission is expected for this type of plugin.

How to Install

Add this to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "io-github-cloudcorprecords-paperport": {
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@reneturcios/paperport"
      ],
      "command": "npx"
    }
  }
}

Documentation

View on GitHub

From the project's GitHub README.

paperport

paperport is a small desk for arXiv work. It searches the public arXiv API, pulls back titles, authors, dates, categories and abstracts in a tidy shape, fetches the abstract for a single paper when you have its id, and keeps a local shelf of papers you have downloaded so you can list and re-read them later without going back to the network.

Install

npx @reneturcios/paperport search "small language models"

Or run the container image:

docker run -i ghcr.io/cloudcorprecords/paperport

The container defaults to the MCP server (see below). Pass CLI arguments to use it as a CLI instead.

CLI

Commands print JSON, except read, which prints the stored paper.

# Search, with optional filters
paperport search "attention patterns" --max-results 5 \
  --date-from 2024-01-01 --date-to 2024-12-31 --categories cs.CL,cs.LG

# One paper's abstract
paperport abstract 2401.12345

# Store a paper locally, then list and read the shelf
paperport download 2401.12345
paperport list
paperport read 2401.12345

paperport --version

Downloaded papers are stored as <paper_id>.md files in the storage directory: the PAPERPORT_STORAGE_DIR environment variable when set, otherwise ./papers.

Exit codes: 0 on success, 1 when a paper cannot be found, fetched or read, 2 for usage errors.

MCP server

One bin serves both faces. The mcp subcommand starts a stdio MCP server:

npx -y @reneturcios/paperport mcp

MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paperport": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@reneturcios/paperport", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

Tool	Input	What it returns
`search_papers`	`query` (string, required), `max_results` (integer, optional), `date_from` / `date_to` (strings, optional, `YYYY-MM-DD`), `categories` (array of strings, optional)	A list of papers: `id`, `title`, `summary`, `authors`, `published`, `categories`, and `pdf_url`.
`get_abstract`	`paper_id` (string, required)	The paper's `paper_id`, `title`, `abstract`, `authors`, `published`, and `pdf_url`.
`download_paper`	`paper_id` (string, required)	Stores the paper locally (see the gap note below) and returns its `paper_id`, `title`, storage `path`, and `pdf_url`.
`list_papers`	(no input)	The papers on the local shelf: each stored file's `paper_id` and `path`.
`read_paper`	`paper_id` (string, required)	The stored paper's `paper_id` and full text `content`. Errors when the paper has not been downloaded.

Paper ids may be given bare (2401.12345), with a version suffix (2401.12345v2), or as a full arxiv.org/abs/... URL; they are normalised before use.

Known gap: downloaded papers are abstract files, not converted PDFs

The original tool this rebuilds converts each downloaded paper's PDF to markdown. paperport does not do that conversion: download_paper stores the paper's metadata and abstract — title, authors, categories, dates, and links to the abstract page and the PDF — as a markdown file, and read_paper returns that file. The full text of the paper is only available through the linked PDF. This is a deliberate, documented limitation of this version, not a silent one.

Development

npm install
npm run build   # tsc -> dist/
npm test        # node test runner over test/*.test.ts, no network
npm run dev     # run the CLI from source via tsx

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

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