MCPInstall

paperzilla

Reads projects, searches project feeds, and retrieves recommendations and canonical papers in Paperzilla through the pz CLI. Supports recent recommendations, paper details, markdown-based summaries, recommendation feedback, JSON export, and Atom feed URLs.

Installs
1.9K
Last 24h
+13
Trending rank
#7769
Security
Not audited

Install

Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.

npx skills add https://github.com/k-dense-ai/scientific-agent-skills --skill paperzilla
  1. 01

    Install

    Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.

  2. 02

    Describe the task

    Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads paperzilla automatically when relevant.

  3. 03

    Review the result

    The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.

SKILL.md

The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.

Paperzilla

Use this skill when you want to chat with your agent about projects, recommendations, and canonical papers in Paperzilla.

What you can ask

  • "Give me the latest recommendations from project X."
  • "Open recommendation Y and explain why it matters."
  • "Fetch canonical paper Z as markdown and summarize it."
  • "Tell me how this paper is relevant to my research."
  • "Show me the feed for project X."
  • "Leave feedback on a recommendation."
  • "Export this paper, recommendation, or feed as JSON."

This is the core Paperzilla skill. It gives your agent direct access to Paperzilla data, but it does not impose a workflow or external delivery integration.

Access method

Use the official pz CLI. This skill targets 0.7.1, checked against the official release source and binary. Command examples use placeholder IDs; replace them with records returned by your account. CLI behavior was tested against a local mock server, not an authenticated Paperzilla account.

Start with pz --version, then list projects, select a project, browse or search its feed, and inspect selected recommendations. Keep project recommendations separate from the underlying canonical paper when summarizing or exporting.

Install

macOS

brew install paperzilla-ai/tap/pz

If Homebrew 6 or later rejects this formula as untrusted, the official guide uses brew trust --formula paperzilla-ai/tap/pz, then retries installation. Trust only that formula. Installation and upgrade commands were documentation-checked, not executed during this review.

Windows (Scoop)

scoop bucket add paperzilla-ai https://github.com/paperzilla-ai/scoop-bucket
scoop install pz

Linux

Use the official Linux install guide:

Build from source (Go 1.23+)

See the CLI repository for source builds:

Update

Check whether your CLI is up to date and get install-specific upgrade steps:

pz update

If detection is ambiguous, override it explicitly:

pz update --install-method homebrew
pz update --install-method scoop
pz update --install-method release
pz update --install-method source

Supported values are auto, homebrew, scoop, release, and source.

Authentication

pz login

Login sends a one-time code to the account email and saves the session locally. Complete it interactively before running JSON exports: missing or expired credentials can trigger login prompts on stdout. The CLI checks account access and refreshes tokens automatically; report access/upgrade errors rather than treating them as an empty feed.

Version-specific discrepancy: the online guides describe anonymous canonical paper access, but the 0.7.1 binary requires login and a CLI-access check even for pz paper. Its subsequent canonical-paper HTTP request uses a public route. Do not promise an anonymous CLI workflow for this release.

CLI reference

If the current profile uses pz, these are the core commands.

List projects

pz project list
pz project list --json

Show one project

pz project <project-id>
pz project <project-id> --json

The list JSON is an array containing id, name, mode, and visibility. The single-project JSON also includes keywords, watched sources, and categories.

Browse project feed

pz feed <project-id>

Useful flags:

  • --must-read
  • --since YYYY-MM-DD
  • --limit N
  • --offset N (zero-based results to skip)
  • --json
  • --atom

Examples:

pz feed <project-id> --must-read --since 2026-03-01 --limit 5
pz feed <project-id> --limit 20 --offset 20 --json
pz feed <project-id> --json
pz feed <project-id> --atom

--since filters when recommendations were ready, not paper publication date. Browse JSON contains items, total, limit, and offset. A command fetches one page; it does not export the entire feed automatically. Retain the same filters, advance from the returned offset by the number of items received, and stop on an empty page or when the returned total is reached. Deduplicate by recommendation ID if the live feed changes while paging.

Feed output can include existing recommendation feedback markers:

  • [↑] upvote
  • [↓] downvote
  • [★] star

Search the full project feed

pz feed search --project-id <project-id> --query "latent retrieval" --json
pz feed search --project-id <project-id> --query "retrieval" --feedback-filter starred --must-read --limit 20 --offset 20 --json

Search ranks results across the whole project feed. Use a trimmed query of 3–200 characters and a positive --limit up to 100. --offset must be nonnegative. Feedback filters are all, unrated, liked, disliked, starred, not-relevant, and low-quality; these hyphenated filters differ from the underscored downvote reasons below. Search does not accept --since.

Search JSON contains items, limit, offset, has_more, and query, with no exact total. Request the next offset only while has_more is true, keeping the query and filters unchanged. Stop and report an inconsistent empty page rather than looping indefinitely. The second example illustrates a subsequent page.

Read a canonical paper

pz paper <paper-id>
pz paper <paper-id> --json
pz paper <paper-id> --markdown
pz paper <paper-id> --project <project-id>

Open a recommendation from one of your projects

pz rec <project-paper-id>
pz rec <project-paper-id> --json
pz rec <project-paper-id> --markdown

Leave recommendation feedback

pz feedback <project-paper-id> upvote
pz feedback <project-paper-id> star
pz feedback <project-paper-id> downvote --reason not_relevant
pz feedback clear <project-paper-id>

Feedback changes account data; use it when the user requests that change. Downvote reasons are not_relevant or low_quality, and --reason applies only to a downvote. Add --json to get the feedback object; clearing returns {"project_paper_ref": "...", "cleared": true}. clear is a subcommand before the recommendation ID.

Keep paper and recommendation identities separate

A canonical paper-id identifies the paper; a project-paper-id identifies its recommendation within a project. Take both from returned records and retain the project association when exporting results. Use the recommendation ID for rec and feedback operations, even if the same paper appears in several projects. In feed JSON, items[].id/items[].short_id are recommendation identifiers; items[].paper.id/items[].paper.short_id are canonical paper identifiers. Do not infer recommendation IDs from a DOI or canonical paper ID. See the official CLI documentation.

When markdown is still being prepared, report that state and summarize only the metadata or abstract actually returned. A retry message is not full-text evidence.

Output and automation

  • Prefer --json for machine parsing after completing login. paper and rec reject combining --json with --markdown.
  • pz paper --markdown only returns markdown when it is already prepared.
  • pz rec --markdown and project-scoped pz paper --project ... --markdown can queue markdown generation. A pending message can exit successfully; check the content before treating stdout as full text. Avoid repeated immediate retries and report the pending state.
  • --atom returns a personal feed URL for feed readers and can create a feed token. Anyone holding that URL can read the feed; keep its token out of logs, public reports, and repositories. It does not return Atom XML or page JSON, and browse filters are not applied to the generated URL.
  • A relevance score expresses project matching, not scientific validity or an effect estimate. Label whether a summary used metadata, an abstract, or actual markdown. Missing PDF URLs do not imply that a source landing page is absent.

Configuration

export PZ_API_URL="https://paperzilla.ai"

The default already points to Paperzilla; change it only for a trusted service or a local test server. Authenticated requests send session credentials there. PZ_TOKENS_PATH optionally selects a session file; by default the CLI uses ~/.paperzilla/tokens.json. Never export that file as research data.

See the verified CLI contracts for request routes, response shapes, pagination, and the documentation/source discrepancy.

References

FAQ

What does the paperzilla skill do?

Reads projects, searches project feeds, and retrieves recommendations and canonical papers in Paperzilla through the pz CLI. Supports recent recommendations, paper details, markdown-based summaries, recommendation feedback, JSON export, and Atom feed URLs.

How do I install paperzilla?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/k-dense-ai/scientific-agent-skills --skill paperzilla in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/paperzilla/ (personal) or .claude/skills/paperzilla/ (project).

Which AI agents can use paperzilla?

Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.

Is paperzilla safe to install?

No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.

Who maintains paperzilla?

It is published by k-dense-ai in k-dense-ai/scientific-agent-skills. It has 1,907 recorded installs.

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