szeider/mcp-dblp

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives Large Language Models access to the DBLP computer science bibliography (accompanying paper published at AI4SC @ AAAI-26).
Overview
MCP-DBLP lets an LLM search DBLP through the Model Context Protocol and build a BibTeX file from the results. The model chooses the papers and the citation keys; the server writes the entries from DBLP's data, so the model never rewrites bibliographic fields.
Since version 2.0, MCP-DBLP works from a local copy of DBLP instead of the dblp.org web API, which now blocks automated clients. On first start the server downloads the local index, a prebuilt SQLite index of the monthly DBLP dump (about 1.3 GB, see The local DBLP index). After that, all searches run locally, without rate limits.
Features
- Boolean search with and and or (no parentheses), filtered by year and venue
- Fuzzy matching of titles and author names
- Author-aware ranking: each search result names the query words that matched an author, the title, or the venue, and marks prefix-only matches
- BibTeX in DBLP's own format, rendered from DBLP's data; it matches the .bib export on dblp.org except for the time of day in the timestamp field, and titles also brace words with inner capitals ({CaDiCaL}, {DRUP}-based) so that bibliography styles do not lowercase them
- Export of the collected entries to a .bib file, written by the server
- A new local index every month, installed with mcp-dblp-index update
Available tools
| Tool | Description |
| ------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| search | Search DBLP with boolean queries |
| fuzzy_title_search | Find publications by approximate title |
| get_author_publications | List an author's publications, optionally by year |
| get_venue_info | Look up a venue's name, acronym, type and DBLP page |
| add_bibtex_entry | Add the entry for a DBLP key to the collection |
| export_bibtex | Write the collected entries to a .bib file |
| set_dblp_mirror | Choose the dblp.org host for the web fallback (rarely needed) |
Feedback
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System requirements
- Python 3.11+
- uv
- About 5.5 GB of free disk space on first start (1.3 GB download plus 4.2 GB index), 4.2 GB afterwards
Installation
Claude Code
Run:
Claude Desktop
Add to your Claude Desktop configuration file:
- macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
- Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
From source (development)
Then configure Claude Desktop with:
The local DBLP index
DBLP publishes all of its data as a monthly XML dump under the CC0 license. The companion repository mcp-dblp-index builds the local index from each dump and publishes it as a GitHub release.
**First start.** If no local index is installed, the server downloads the current release in the background (about 1.3 GB, unpacked to 4.2 GB). This takes about 2 minutes at 100 Mbit/s and about 9 minutes at 20 Mbit/s. Meanwhile, each tool call waits up to 40 seconds for the index and then answers with the download progress, so the first search takes longer than usual. An interrupted download resumes where it stopped.
**Updates.** A new local index is released every month. The installed one changes only when you update it:
The old index keeps serving until the new one is installed. Papers added to DBLP after the release date are not in the index until the next release.
**Command line.** mcp-dblp-index manages the index:
| Command | What it does |
| ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| status | Show the installed index (release date, number of publications) |
| fetch | Download and install the current local index |
| update | Install the newest release if it is newer than the installed one |