A command line tool for arXiv papers that searches arXiv and pulls paper metadata, authors, and abstracts. No API key required. Provides MCP tools for arXiv operations.
24 tools with complete schemas and descriptions, but descriptions are uniformly terse (10-30 chars), well below the 50-200 char LLM-optimized baseline. Tool names follow verb_noun convention (search, list, get, download) which is good. However, descriptions lack context on WHEN to use each tool, prerequisites, or what distinguishes similar tools (e.g., search vs. count vs. list). Parameters are typed and mostly described, but many descriptions are single-word or generic ('the paper ID', 'how many papers to return'). No error handling guidance, no output schema documentation, no indication of which tools are idempotent or safe to retry. The 'download' tool is marked WRITE but lacks confirmation/dry-run pattern. Overall: functional but minimal, descriptions do not meet LLM-optimization standards.
Get papers by author name
Get BibTeX entry for a paper
List all arXiv categories
Get information about a specific category
Get citation for a paper
Count arXiv papers matching a query
Download a paper PDF or source
Get citation edges for papers
Descriptions uniformly terse (10-30 chars), far below LLM-optimized baseline of 50-200 chars. Lack context on WHEN to use each tool, prerequisites, or distinctions between similar tools (search vs. count vs. list).
No output schema documentation. LLMs cannot plan downstream calls or extract required fields (e.g., what fields does 'search' return? Is paper_id included for chaining to 'fulltext'?).
| Scored | Grade | Overall | Spec posture | Rubric |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-23 | D | 51 | 2025-06-18+ | v2 |
Show the searchable fields
Get file information for a paper
Get full text HTML of a paper
Show the search grammar
Build a citation graph
Parse and validate an arXiv ID
List arXiv papers in a category by month
List new arXiv papers
Get a paper by ID
Show the request planes and their pacing
Show the search predicates
Show every URL this tool will ever request
Search arXiv papers
List arXiv sets
Show the data surfaces
Get trackbacks for a paper
No error handling guidance. Tools return errors but do not tell LLMs what to do next (retry? ask user? call a different tool?). No recovery paths documented.
'download' tool marked WRITE but lacks confirmation/dry-run pattern. Agents may accidentally download large files without user consent.
Parameter descriptions are generic ('the paper ID', 'how many papers to return'). No format constraints, ranges, or examples. LLMs cannot validate inputs before calling.