literature-search

Q: How do I install literature-search?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill literature-search 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/literature-search/ (personal) or .claude/skills/literature-search/ (project).

Q: Which AI agents can use literature-search?

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.

Q: Is literature-search 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.

Q: Who maintains literature-search?

It is published by lingzhi227 in lingzhi227/agent-research-skills. It has 2,645 recorded installs.

by lingzhi227Education & Science

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.

Installs: 2.6K
Last 24h: —
Trending rank: —
Security: Not audited

Install

Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.

npx skills add https://github.com/lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill literature-search

01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads literature-search automatically when relevant.
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.

Literature Search

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

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

Related Skills

Downstream: citation-management, literature-review, related-work-writing
See also: deep-research, novelty-assessment

FAQ

What does the literature-search skill do?

How do I install literature-search?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill literature-search 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/literature-search/ (personal) or .claude/skills/literature-search/ (project).

Which AI agents can use literature-search?

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 literature-search 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 literature-search?

It is published by lingzhi227 in lingzhi227/agent-research-skills. It has 2,645 recorded installs.