Description
paper-lookup is an agent skill that searches 18 scholarly APIs for papers, preprints, citations, open-access full text, repository records and journal open-access status. Its job is to turn a request into a repeatable lookup: it picks the authoritative database or databases, makes bounded and rate-limited calls, and returns an answer with enough detail, such as endpoints, parameters, identifiers and the access date, for someone else to repeat it. The skill is firm about one hazard. These APIs can return a success status with an empty or wrong body, so the skill tells the agent to check the shape of the result, not just the status code. It gives examples, such as an arXiv query that returns an error entry, and an OpenCitations answer that reports zero citations for an unknown DOI. It says to report plainly when a database returned nothing, because an empty result may mean the record is not indexed there rather than that it does not exist. Endpoint contracts were reviewed against official documentation on 30 September 2026. Counts, prices, availability and status values in the examples are not current results.…
Highlights
- Searches 18 scholarly APIs
- Papers, preprints, citations and open-access text
- Checks the shape of results, not only status
- Reports partial and empty results plainly
- Gives endpoints and identifiers for repeat lookups
Ratings & Reviews
No ratings yet
Be the first to rate paper-lookup.
People also visit
paper-lookup FAQ
What can it find?
Papers, preprints, citations, open-access full text, repository records and journal open-access status.
Which sources does it use?
It has documented endpoints for 18 scholarly APIs, and selects the authoritative one or two for each request.
Why check the results closely?
The skill says some APIs return a success status with a wrong or empty body, so the result's shape needs checking.
What does an empty result mean?
The skill says it may mean the record is not indexed in that database, rather than that it does not exist.
How do I install it?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/k-dense-ai/scientific-agent-skills --skill paper-lookup.
What are the best paper-lookup alternatives?
Popular alternatives to paper-lookup include bgpt-paper-search, literature-review and academic-researcher. See all paper-lookup alternatives