Scholar MCP

Persistent-state backend URL shared by every pvl-core subsystem that needs state. `memory://` is in-process and lost on restart; `file:///path` persists on one server; `redis://`, `dynamodb://` and `mongodb://` each need their matching extra. When unset, defaults to `file:///data

Comma-separated explicit tool names this instance exposes; every other tool is hidden from listings and cannot be invoked. Names matching no registered tool are inert. Mutually exclusive with `tools_deny`. Takes effect through `apply_tool_visibility`.

Comma-separated explicit tool names hidden from this instance (absent from listings, cannot be invoked). Names matching no registered tool are inert. Mutually exclusive with `tools_allow`. Takes effect through `apply_tool_visibility`.

Rename this server instance; defaults to the project name.

Concise routing context that distinguishes this deployment's material or responsibility.

Deployment-specific behavioral policy added to the generated MCP instructions.

Legacy: replaces all generated MCP instructions (deprecated; use _INSTANCE_DESCRIPTION for routing and _INSTRUCTIONS_EXTRA for policy).

Log level for every logger in the process, FastMCP's included (DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR / CRITICAL). The -v CLI flag overrides to DEBUG. The unprefixed FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL still works for one major version and logs a deprecation warning.

Log rendering. rich is one colour event key=value line per record, for a terminal; json is one JSON object per record, for a collector. Unset picks rich when stderr is a terminal and json everywhere else, so a container or journald gets JSON with no configuration.

GitHub token used to raise rate limits when fetching standards documents from GitHub. Optional; unauthenticated requests work at reduced limits.

When true, write-tagged tools (PDF download and conversion cache writes) are hidden. Set false to enable them.

Semantic Scholar API key. Optional but strongly recommended: a key has an introductory 1 req/s allowance; anonymous users share capacity and may be throttled. Request one at https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api#api-key-form.

Base URL of a running docling-serve instance for PDF conversion (e.g. http://localhost:5001). When unset, PDF conversion tools return an error.

OpenAI-compatible VLM endpoint for formula and figure enrichment during PDF conversion.

API key for the VLM endpoint.

Model name to use with the VLM endpoint.

JSON object of extra request parameters for every VLM call, overriding the defaults, for a model that needs them (e.g. {"temperature": 1}).

Directory for the SQLite cache database (cache.db) and downloaded PDFs (pdfs/, md/).

Contact email for the OpenAlex polite pool (improves rate limits). Also enables Unpaywall lookups as a PDF fallback source.

EPO Open Patent Services consumer key. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset. Register at https://developers.epo.org/user/register.

EPO Open Patent Services consumer secret. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset.

Google Books API key. Optional; book tools work unauthenticated at reduced rate limits.

Links to a paper through your library, offered when no PDF can be fetched and with each paper lookup: a JSON list of objects with a label and an http(s) URL template, in priority order. Placeholders: {doi}, {doi_url} (the encoded doi.org URL, for wrapping), {openurl} (OpenURL 1.0

When false (the default), a PDF download is refused if the host, or a redirect target, resolves to a loopback, private, link-local or other non-public address. This covers URLs the caller supplies and URLs taken from paper metadata. Set true to allow hosts on the server's own net