Skip to content
alyn
lingzhi227

Literature Search skill

Search academic literature using Semantic Scholar, arXiv, and OpenAlex APIs. Returns structured JSONL with title, authors, year, venue, abstract, citations, and BibTeX. Use when the user needs to find papers, check related work, or build a bibliography.

$npx skills add lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill literature-search
View this skill on GitHublingzhi227/agent-research-skills/skills/literature-search/SKILL.md
Pack stars
462
Pack installs
60k
Alyn Score
47/99
Updated
9 months ago
– views – installs via Alyn

lingzhi227

Literature Search

Research

Install Literature Search

Pick your agent. Every command is ready to paste.

$npx skills add lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill literature-search

The open skills CLI detects your agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and 70+ more) and installs to the right folder. Add -g to install globally.

01

Install it

Run the command above, or upload the folder in Claude.

02

Ask naturally

Describe the task. Your agent loads literature-search when the request matches its description.

03

Name it if needed

If it does not trigger, say “use the literature-search skill”. In Codex, type $literature-search.

The skill itself

SKILL.md

FolderGitHub

Search multiple academic databases to find relevant papers.

Input

  • $ARGUMENTS — The search query (natural language)

Scripts

Semantic Scholar (primary — best for ML/AI, has BibTeX)

python ~/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/search_semantic_scholar.py \
  --query "QUERY" --max-results 20 --year-range 2022-2026 \
  --api-key "$(grep S2_API_Key /Users/lingzhi/Code/keys.md 2>/dev/null | cut -d: -f2 | tr -d ' ')" \
  -o results_s2.jsonl

Key flags: --peer-reviewed-only, --top-conferences, --min-citations N, --venue NeurIPS ICML

arXiv (latest preprints)

python ~/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/search_arxiv.py \
  --query "QUERY" --max-results 10 -o results_arxiv.jsonl

OpenAlex (broadest coverage, free, no API key)

python ~/.claude/skills/literature-search/scripts/search_openalex.py \
  --query "QUERY" --max-results 20 --year-range 2022-2026 \
  --min-citations 5 -o results_openalex.jsonl

Merge & Deduplicate

python ~/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/paper_db.py merge \
  --inputs results_s2.jsonl results_arxiv.jsonl results_openalex.jsonl \
  --output merged.jsonl

CrossRef (DOI-based lookup, broadest type coverage)

python ~/.claude/skills/literature-search/scripts/search_crossref.py \
  --query "QUERY" --rows 10 --output results_crossref.jsonl

Key flags: --bibtex (output .bib format), --rows N

Download arXiv Source (get .tex files)

python ~/.claude/skills/literature-search/scripts/download_arxiv_source.py \
  --title "Paper Title" --output-dir arxiv_papers/

Key flags: --arxiv-id 1706.03762, --metadata, --max-results N

Generate BibTeX from results

python ~/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/bibtex_manager.py \
  --jsonl merged.jsonl --output references.bib

Workflow

  1. Expand the user's query into 2-4 complementary search queries
  2. Run Semantic Scholar search (primary) with expanded queries
  3. Run arXiv for very recent preprints (< 3 months)
  4. Optionally run OpenAlex for broader coverage
  5. Merge and deduplicate results
  6. Rank by: citations (0.3) + recency (0.3) + venue quality (0.2) + relevance (0.2)
  7. Present structured results table

Venue Quality Tiers

Tier 1: NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, KDD, AAAI, IJCAI, SIGIR, WWW Tier 2: AISTATS, UAI, COLT, COLING, EACL, WACV, JMLR, TACL Tier 3: Workshops, arXiv preprints — mark with (preprint)

Output Format

Present results as a table + detailed entries with BibTeX keys. Always note preprint status.

Tips for Literature Search

  • • Start a fresh session after installing so your agent picks up the new skill.
  • • This skill ships scripts. Read them before the first run, and run it in a project without secrets first.
  • • It is part of a pack with 30 skills. Install only the ones you need with --skill to keep triggers precise.
  • • If two skills overlap, mention the one you want by name.

Questions about Literature Search

What does the Literature Search skill do?

Search academic literature using Semantic Scholar, arXiv, and OpenAlex APIs. Returns structured JSONL with title, authors, year, venue, abstract, citations, and BibTeX. Use when the user needs to find papers, check related work, or build a bibliography.

How do I install Literature Search?

Run "npx skills add lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill literature-search" in your project. The skills CLI installs it for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and 70+ other agents. In Claude on the web, upload the skill folder as a ZIP under Customize > Skills.

Does Literature Search work in Cursor and Codex?

Yes. Literature Search uses the open SKILL.md format, so it works in Claude Code, Claude, Cursor, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and other agents that support agent skills.

Is Literature Search free?

Literature Search is open source on GitHub. It is free to install; check the license before commercial use.

Who made Literature Search?

Literature Search is published by lingzhi227 in the lingzhi227/agent-research-skills repository, together with 29 other skills.

Similar skills. From other creators.