mp-search 0.1.2

Terminal UI tool for searching materials from the Materials Project database

MP Search

中文文档

A terminal UI tool for searching materials from the Materials Project database. Built with Textual.

Preview

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Features

• Three search modes — Search by chemical formula, elements, or chemical system
• Property filters — Filter by band gap, energy above hull, atom count, crystal system, and stability
• Material detail view — Full properties, lattice parameters, and symmetry info
• Export — One-click export to POSCAR / CIF / JSON
• First-run setup wizard — Interactive configuration on first launch, no manual file editing needed
• Internationalization — Chinese and English UI

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Installation

From PyPI (recommended)

pip install mp-search

Or with uv:

# Install as a global tool
uv tool install mp-search

# Or run directly without installing
uvx mp-search

From source

git clone https://github.com/sylearn/mp-search.git
cd mp-search
pip install -e .

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Configuration

First launch (recommended)

Simply run mp-search. If no configuration is found, an interactive setup wizard will guide you through entering:

• API Key — get yours at Materials Project
• Export directory — where to save POSCAR / CIF / JSON files
• Language — English or Chinese

Settings are saved to ~/.config/mp-search/config.env.

Manual configuration

You can also set environment variables directly or create a config file:

# Option 1: Shell environment
export MP_API_KEY="your_key_here"

# Option 2: Config file
mkdir -p ~/.config/mp-search
cat > ~/.config/mp-search/config.env << 'EOF'
MP_API_KEY="your_key_here"
MP_EXPORT_DIR="~/mp-search-exports"
MP_SEARCH_LANG="en"
EOF

Variable	Description	Default
MP_API_KEY	Required. Materials Project API key	—
MP_EXPORT_DIR	Export directory path	~/mp-search-exports
MP_SEARCH_LANG	UI language: zh or en	en

Config lookup order: environment variables → ~/.config/mp-search/config.env → .env in current directory.

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Usage

mp-search

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
/	Focus search input
f	Toggle filter panel
Enter	View selected material detail
e	Export selected material
Escape	Back from detail
q	Quit

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Project Structure

mp-search/
├── pyproject.toml
├── .env.example
└── mp_search/
    ├── __main__.py      # CLI entry point
    ├── config.py         # Multi-location config loader
    ├── i18n.py           # Internationalization
    ├── api/client.py     # REST API client
    ├── export/writer.py  # POSCAR / CIF / JSON export
    └── tui/
        ├── app.py        # Main TUI
        ├── detail.py     # Detail modal
        └── setup.py      # First-run setup wizard

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License

MIT