ai-research 0.1.42

Python SDK for the AIR Backend API

AIR SDK

The AIR SDK is a Python client for the AIR platform — a suite of AI assistant tools for scientific research. It gives you programmatic access to AI-assisted pipeline steps (idea generation, literature search, methods, data analysis, paper writing, peer review) as well as a set of standalone tools you can use independently.

Key capabilities:

• AI-assisted research pipeline — use AI assistants for idea generation, literature search, methods development, data analysis, paper writing, and review as a connected workflow or individual steps
• Local code execution — the results, one_shot, and deep_research methods coordinate an AI agent on the backend while all generated code runs locally on your machine in an isolated virtual environment
• VLM image review — optionally enable vision-language model feedback to iteratively improve generated plots
• File sync — push local data files to a project and pull generated outputs (plots, LaTeX, reports) back to disk after each step
• Standalone AI tools — extract keywords (UNESCO, AAS, AAAI), download and summarise arXiv papers, enhance text with paper context, run OCR on PDFs (local or remote), or get an AI review of a paper PDF
• Model flexibility — use cloud models (Gemini, GPT, Claude) or self-hosted open-source models via vLLM

Installation

pip install ai-research

Quick Start

import os
import air

client = air.AIR(
    api_key=os.environ["AIR_API_KEY"],
    base_url=os.environ.get("AIR_BASE_URL", "http://localhost:8000"),
)

# Standalone tools
keywords = client.keywords("dark matter and lensing", n=5, kw_type="aas")
enhanced = client.enhance("My analysis references https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762")
ocr_result = client.ocr("paper.pdf")  # local or server-side PDF

# One-shot task (code runs locally)
result = client.one_shot(
    "Generate synthetic data and plot a ROC curve",
    agent="engineer",
    work_dir="./output",
)

# Deep research (multi-step planning + execution)
result = client.deep_research(
    "Fit a Cox model to survival data and write a data guide",
    max_plan_steps=2,
    plan_instructions="1. engineer, 2. researcher.",
    work_dir="./output",
)

# Full research pipeline
project = client.create_project("my-research", data_description="We study...")
idea = project.idea()
literature = project.literature()
methods = project.methods()
results = project.results(max_steps=2, work_dir="./output")
paper = project.paper(journal="AAS", add_citations=True)
review = project.review()
project.pull_files()

Configuration

Set environment variables, or pass them directly to the constructor:

Variable	Description	Default
AIR_API_KEY	API key (air_k1_...)	required
AIR_BASE_URL	Backend URL	http://localhost:8000
AIR_LOCAL_DIR	Local root for pull_files / auto-pull	~/ai-scientist
AIR_WORK_DIR	Local root for code execution (results, one_shot, deep_research)	~/ai-scientist

Available Models

Examples of models that can be used across the SDK:

Model	Notes
gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview	Fast, cheapest — good default
gemini-3.1-pro-preview	Stronger reasoning
gemini-2.5-flash	Good for paper writing
gpt-5-nano	Fast, good quality
gpt-5.2	Strongest OpenAI model
claude-sonnet-4-6	Strong all-round
gpt-oss-120b	Self-hosted via vLLM, free

API Reference

AIR class

Method	Description
health()	Check backend status
keywords(text, n, kw_type)	Extract keywords (UNESCO, AAS, or AAAI)
arxiv(text)	Download arXiv papers from URLs in text
enhance(text)	Enhance text with context from referenced papers
ocr(file_path)	OCR a PDF (local file or server path)
review(file_path, ...)	Standalone paper review with Skepthical (local or server PDF)
one_shot(task, *, model, agent, enable_vlm_review, ...)	One-shot task with local code execution
deep_research(task, *, adaptive_planning, enable_vlm_review, ...)	Multi-step research with planning and local code execution
create_project(name, data_description)	Create a project
get_project(name)	Get existing project
list_projects()	List all projects
delete_project(name)	Delete a project

Project class

Method	Description
idea(default_model, critic_model, idea_iterations)	Generate research idea
literature(timeout, max_iterations)	Run literature search
methods(default_model, critic_model)	Develop methods
results(max_steps, max_attempts, engineer_model, researcher_model, ...)	Run analysis with local code execution
paper(journal, add_citations, default_model)	Write paper
review(...)	Run review
get_file(path)	Read a project file
list_files()	List all project files
write_file(path, content)	Write a file
pull_files(key_only, iteration)	Download project files locally
push_files(local_path, remote_path)	Upload local files to project
delete()	Delete the project

Examples

The examples/ directory contains runnable scripts covering all features:

Script	Description
00_manage_projects.py	List and delete projects
01_health_check.py	Backend health check
02a-c_keywords_*.py	Keyword extraction (UNESCO, AAS, AAAI)
03a_ocr_arxiv.py	OCR an arXiv paper
03b_ocr_local.py	OCR a local PDF
04_enhance.py	Enhance text with arXiv context
05a-d_idea_*.py	Idea generation (quantum, psychology, chemical eng., oncology)
06_literature_coral.py	Literature search (marine biology)
07a-e_methods_*.py	Methods development (quantum, zoology, psychology, chemical eng., oncology)
08a_one_shot_engineer.py	One-shot code generation
08b_one_shot_researcher.py	One-shot writing task
08c_one_shot_vlm.py	One-shot with VLM image review
08d_one_shot_researcher_oss.py	One-shot with self-hosted OSS model
09_deep_research_biostatistics.py	Deep research (biostatistics)
10_pipeline_oscillator.py	Full pipeline: idea → literature → methods → results
11_paper_oscillator.py	Paper writing from existing project
12_review.py	Standalone paper review

Docs

pip install ai-research[docs]
mkdocs serve --livereload

Tests

pytest tests
pytest tests/ -m "not slow"  # skip slow tests