paper-mcp (MCPServings/paper-mcp) is an MCP server listed on the M8ven Trust Index. It scores 69 out of 100, grade C. It declares 41 tools. No publisher has claimed this listing.

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C
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69/100

paper-mcp

Remotely-callable MCP server for academic paper search, full-text retrieval and image to LaTeX conversion across arXiv, Semantic Scholar, and OpenAlex.

→ MCPServings/paper-mcp· listed on glama

Limited view. Automated analysis covers part of this stack. Findings reflect what we verified. Grades reflect the full trust pyramid: code, verification depth, and reputation. New projects cap at C until adoption is earned.

Limited view: static analysis for Python is partially covered.

How we verified

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Who stands behind it

MCPServings

Source: Glama

Is this your MCP?

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Install from

Glamanot scored here

The grade above is for the source repository. Registries can serve a different version, so we mark the ones we were not able to read.

// key findings
✅
No credential exfiltration, no sensitive file access, no obfuscation
Static analysis found nothing flowing your secrets to unexpected places.
✅
Open source with a license and README
Anyone can audit the code, the license is declared, and the publisher documents what it does.
🔐
You'll be asked for 2 credentials: NCBI_API_KEY, SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY
These are read from process.env at runtime. Make sure you trust where they’ll be sent.
// environment variables
To run this server yourself, you supply these values. They go in your own MCP client configuration and stay on your machine. The secret label means the value is sensitive, not that the server mishandles it.
🔐 secretNCBI_API_KEY
configNCBI_TOOL
configNCBI_EMAIL
configPAPER_MCP_HOST
configPAPER_MCP_PORT9400 python -m paper_mcp.server
configPAPER_MCP_PATH
configMCP_MAX_PER_HOUR300 Direct-client JSON-RPC POST budget per IP.
configMCP_WORKER_MAX_PER_HOUR300 Trusted reverse-proxy Worker budget per HMAC-derived connection key. Raw keys are not retained.
configMCP_WORKER_SHARED_MAX_PER_HOUR2400 Shared ceiling across all trusted Worker connections.
configMCP_RATE_COOLDOWN_SEC300 Minimum fast-rejection cooldown after a bucket reaches its limit.
🔐 secretSEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEYoptional; raises S2 rate limit. Set via /etc/paper-mcp.env in prod.
configOPENALEX_MAILTO
configLINT_URL
configPDF_EXTRACT_URL
configRECOGNIZE_URL
// quality suggestions

Tool annotations

No tools have read-only/destructive annotations

Add readOnlyHint or destructiveHint annotations to every tool so hosts can warn users before invoking.

All four hints declared on every tool

41/41 tools missing one or more hints — search_papers (missing: readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint, openWorldHint); search_all (missing: readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint, openWorldHint); search_medical (missing: readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint, openWorldHint), +38 more. OpenAI's directory rejects tools where any of the four hints are missing or non-boolean.

For every tool, set all four hints (readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint, openWorldHint) to explicit true/false values that match the handler’s actual behaviour.

Tool inputs are validated

38/41 tool handlers declare input schemas (93%)

Declare an inputSchema with zod/joi/yup on every tool definition.

Tool handlers catch errors

38/41 tool handlers wrap calls in try/catch (93%)

Wrap each tool handler body in try/catch and return a structured error response.

Tests exist

No test files found

Add tests that exercise each declared tool.

Claim the listing to review these findings one by one and send us a correction where you disagree, straight to the team. Claiming also means we tell you when the grade moves, and reach you first if we find anything urgent.

// full audit trail
The findings above are the summary. The full trail, every check we ran, each deduction, the network hosts observed and the dependency advisories, goes to verified publishers, along with an alert whenever a new one lands. Verified publishers can also review each finding and dispute it in one click. Publisher corrections have sharpened several of our checks this month, because the maintainer knows the codebase better than any scanner.
// improvement guidance — verified publishers only
We have 5 concrete improvements we can share with the publisher of this MCP. Each comes with specific guidance to raise the trust score.
// embed badge in your README
[![M8ven Score](https://m8ven.ai/badge/mcp/mcpservings/paper-mcp)](https://m8ven.ai/mcp/mcpservings/paper-mcp)
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commit: 41f0332c77abf7212a62eba2c3db715d7867eead
code hash: 1bb6a5d5b13cf9e5ef80a3949168eedc778f55ed17fa01211e6cddd1ba82e01a
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