openresearch-mcp 0.1.3

Zero-auth multi-source research MCP server — web, GitHub, Hacker News, Stack Overflow, arXiv, Semantic Scholar, YouTube transcripts, and more.

openresearch-mcp

Zero-auth multi-source research MCP server. Works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, OpenCode, Open WebUI, or any MCP-compatible agent — no API keys required.

Tools

Tool	Source	Notes
web_search	DuckDuckGo	Optional site= param to scope to a domain (e.g. arxiv.org)
read_url	Any webpage	Strips nav/scripts, returns clean text
read_pdf	Any PDF or arXiv	Accepts /abs/, /pdf/, /html/ arXiv URLs interchangeably
search_openalex	OpenAlex	250M+ works, zero rate limiting; set OPENALEX_EMAIL for polite pool
search_hacker_news	HN via Algolia	Story search with points + comment counts
search_stackoverflow	Stack Overflow API	Set STACKEXCHANGE_KEY for higher quota
read_repo	GitHub public repos	README + file tree + key docs; set GITHUB_TOKEN for 5k req/hr
get_youtube_transcript	YouTube captions	Accepts full URLs, youtu.be/ links, shorts, or bare video IDs

Install

# Recommended — zero install, always isolated
uvx openresearch-mcp

# Or install globally with pip
pip install openresearch-mcp
openresearch-mcp

By default the server starts on http://0.0.0.0:8000/mcp (Streamable HTTP, MCP 1.1+).

Update

uvx --refresh openresearch-mcp

With pip:

pip install --upgrade openresearch-mcp

Connect to an MCP client

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
(Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openresearch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["openresearch-mcp"],
      "env": { "MCP_TRANSPORT": "stdio" }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving. The server runs in stdio mode — no port needed.

Cursor

Create or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per-project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openresearch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["openresearch-mcp"],
      "env": { "MCP_TRANSPORT": "stdio" }
    }
  }
}

HTTP agents (OpenCode, Open WebUI, custom)

Start the server:

uvx openresearch-mcp
# or: openresearch-mcp

Point your agent at:

http://localhost:8000/mcp

Optional env vars

All tools work without any keys. Set these to increase rate limits:

Variable	Effect
GITHUB_TOKEN	GitHub: 60 → 5,000 req/hr
OPENALEX_EMAIL	OpenAlex polite pool (higher limits)
STACKEXCHANGE_KEY	Stack Overflow: higher daily quota

Example with keys:

GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_... OPENALEX_EMAIL=[e-mail] uvx openresearch-mcp

Or in Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openresearch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["openresearch-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT": "stdio",
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "ghp_...",
        "OPENALEX_EMAIL": "[e-mail]"
      }
    }
  }
}

Health check

When running in HTTP mode, check which sources are reachable:

curl http://localhost:8000/health

{
  "status": "ok",
  "sources": {
    "duckduckgo":    { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 173 },
    "github":        { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 101 },
    "hacker_news":   { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 308 },
    "stackoverflow": { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 247 },
    "openalex":      { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 412 },
    "youtube":       { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 320 }
  }
}

status is "ok", "degraded" (some sources down), or "down" (all unreachable). HTTP 200 / 503.

Known limitations

• Reddit / Zenodo: block unauthenticated scraping — not included
• YouTube: rate-limited at scale; works well for personal/low-volume use

Roadmap

• Reddit OAuth (browser-based, no user key management)
• GitHub Device Flow login
• PubMed / NCBI (optional key)
• NewsAPI support (optional key)

License

Apache 2.0