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Installation

The client tutorials each install the server one way. This page lists every way, so you can pick by where the server runs, and ends with how to check what you installed. Which channel each release reaches is on the Upgrade page.

Before you expose the server beyond your own machine, read the security model.

As a command on your machine

For a client that starts the server itself (Claude Desktop, or Claude Code over stdio), install it as a command with uv:

uv tool install "pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp"

uv gives the server its own environment and finds a Python for it, downloading one when your machine has none. The scholar-mcp command lands in uv's executable directory, ~/.local/bin unless you configured another (uv tool dir --bin prints it). uv tool upgrade pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp moves to the newest release; uv tool install "pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp==X.Y.Z" pins one, a release candidate included (X.Y.ZrcN).

In an environment you manage yourself, pip install "pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp" installs the same package. To run a release without installing anything:

uvx --from "pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp" scholar-mcp serve

Quote the package name whenever it carries an extra, "pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp[extra]": without the quotes, zsh, the default shell on macOS, reads the brackets as a pattern and the command fails. The extras this server defines are under Notes for this server.

Claude Desktop

Each release ships a .mcpb bundle on the releases page. Open it with Claude Desktop, or choose Settings › Extensions › Advanced settings › Install Extension…; Claude Desktop asks for the settings this server declares and configures itself. The bundle carries no code: it pins the released package at its own version and fetches it from PyPI with uvx on first launch, so the machine needs network access then. A release candidate's bundle installs the same way. The Claude Desktop tutorial takes it from there.

Claude Code

Two commands inside Claude Code install the plugin, which runs the released package:

/plugin marketplace add pvliesdonk/claude-plugins
/plugin install scholar-mcp@pvliesdonk

The marketplace entry follows stable releases only. The Claude Code tutorial covers the scope question, settings and the command-line route.

Docker

docker pull ghcr.io/pvliesdonk/scholar-mcp:latest

latest is the newest stable release. The image's other tags (exact versions, rc, edge) are on the Docker page, which is where a deployment continues.

Linux packages

Each release ships a .deb and an .rpm. The names below carry no version and fetch the newest stable release:

curl -LO https://github.com/pvliesdonk/scholar-mcp/releases/latest/download/scholar-mcp_latest.deb
sudo apt install ./scholar-mcp_latest.deb

curl -LO https://github.com/pvliesdonk/scholar-mcp/releases/latest/download/scholar-mcp_latest.rpm
sudo dnf install ./scholar-mcp_latest.rpm

The package needs python3 3.11 or newer with venv. It creates a virtual environment under /opt/scholar-mcp/venv and installs pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp at the package's own version from PyPI, so the machine needs network access during the install; a release candidate's package installs the wheel attached to its own GitHub release instead. The package also installs:

  • /etc/scholar-mcp/env, copied from env.example on first install, readable by root only and never overwritten by an upgrade: the server's configuration, read by the service.
  • /var/lib/scholar-mcp, the state directory, owned by the scholar-mcp system user the package creates.
  • The systemd unit scholar-mcp.service, which runs scholar-mcp serve --transport http as that user. It is installed but not enabled; to start it now and on every boot:
sudo systemctl enable --now scholar-mcp

An upgrade restarts a running service. Deploy covers the environment file and the service from here.

From source

git clone https://github.com/pvliesdonk/scholar-mcp
cd scholar-mcp
uv sync --all-extras --all-groups
uv run scholar-mcp serve

This is the setup for changing the project; Contribute continues from here.

Check what you installed

  • The command: scholar-mcp --help lists its commands and options; the command line reference describes them.
  • A connected client, local or remote: ask Claude which version is running. The get_server_info tool reports server_version.

Notes for this server

The PyPI package is pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp; the command it installs is scholar-mcp. Because the names differ, uvx needs --from "pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp" and uv tool install takes the package name.

Outside the container, set SCHOLAR_MCP_CACHE_DIR to a directory you can write: its default, /data/scholar-mcp, is the container path.