An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that connects your Mendeley reference library to LLM applications like Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible clients.
- Search your library - Find papers by title, author, abstract, or notes
- Browse folders - Navigate your collection structure
- Get full metadata - Retrieve complete document details including abstracts
- Search global catalog - Access Mendeley's 100M+ paper database
- DOI lookup - Find papers by their DOI
- Add documents - Create new entries in your library
- Mendeley Account - Sign up at mendeley.com (uses Elsevier authentication)
- Mendeley API App - Register at dev.mendeley.com/myapps.html
- Sign in with your Elsevier credentials
- Click "Register a new app"
- Set redirect URL to
http://localhost:8585/callback - Select "Authorization code" flow (not Legacy)
- Note your Client ID and Client Secret
pip install mendeley-mcpuv tool install mendeley-mcpdocker run -it \
-e MENDELEY_CLIENT_ID="your-client-id" \
-e MENDELEY_CLIENT_SECRET="your-client-secret" \
-e MENDELEY_REFRESH_TOKEN="your-refresh-token" \
ghcr.io/pallaprolus/mendeley-mcpOr build locally:
git clone https://github.com/pallaprolus/mendeley-mcp.git
cd mendeley-mcp
docker build -t mendeley-mcp .git clone https://github.com/pallaprolus/mendeley-mcp.git
cd mendeley-mcp
pip install -e .Run the authentication wizard:
mendeley-auth loginThis will:
- Prompt for your Client ID and Client Secret
- Open your browser to authorize the app
- Save your credentials securely in your system keyring
Edit your Claude Desktop config file:
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"mendeley": {
"command": "mendeley-mcp"
}
}
}If installed with uv:
{
"mcpServers": {
"mendeley": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["mendeley-mcp"]
}
}
}The Mendeley tools should now be available in Claude.
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
mendeley_search_library |
Search documents in your library |
mendeley_get_document |
Get full details of a specific document |
mendeley_list_documents |
List documents, optionally filtered by folder |
mendeley_list_folders |
List all folders/collections |
mendeley_search_catalog |
Search Mendeley's global paper database |
mendeley_get_by_doi |
Look up a paper by DOI |
mendeley_add_document |
Add a new document to your library |
Once configured, you can ask Claude things like:
- "Search my Mendeley library for papers about transformer architectures"
- "What papers do I have in my 'Machine Learning' folder?"
- "Find the paper with DOI 10.1038/nature14539 and summarize it"
- "Search the Mendeley catalog for recent papers on protein folding"
- "Add this paper to my library: [title, authors, etc.]"
If you prefer not to use mendeley-auth login, you can configure credentials via environment variables:
# Required
export MENDELEY_CLIENT_ID="your-client-id"
export MENDELEY_CLIENT_SECRET="your-client-secret"
# One of the following (refresh token recommended - access tokens expire quickly)
export MENDELEY_REFRESH_TOKEN="your-refresh-token"
# OR
export MENDELEY_ACCESS_TOKEN="your-access-token"Or in your MCP config:
{
"mcpServers": {
"mendeley": {
"command": "mendeley-mcp",
"env": {
"MENDELEY_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id",
"MENDELEY_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret",
"MENDELEY_REFRESH_TOKEN": "your-refresh-token"
}
}
}
}# Check authentication status
mendeley-auth status
# Show environment variables for manual config
mendeley-auth show-env
# Remove saved credentials
mendeley-auth logoutgit clone https://github.com/pallaprolus/mendeley-mcp.git
cd mendeley-mcp
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"# Run tests
pytest
# Run with coverage
pytest --cov=mendeley_mcp
# Type checking
mypy src/mendeley_mcp
# Linting
ruff check src/# Install MCP inspector
npm install -g @modelcontextprotocol/inspector
# Run your server with inspector
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector mendeley-mcp┌─────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────┐ ┌───────────────────┐
│ Claude Desktop │────▶│ mendeley-mcp │────▶│ Mendeley API │
│ (MCP Client) │◀────│ (MCP Server) │◀────│ api.mendeley.com │
└─────────────────┘ └──────────────────┘ └───────────────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────────────┐
│ Local Keyring │
│ (credentials) │
└──────────────────┘
Important: This server runs locally on your machine. Your credentials and data never pass through any third-party servers - all communication is directly between your computer and Mendeley's API.
Credential Storage: Your OAuth tokens and client secret are stored securely in your system's native keyring (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Locker, or Linux Secret Service). Only the non-sensitive client ID is stored in ~/.config/mendeley-mcp/credentials.json.
Mendeley API rate limits are per-user. If you hit rate limits:
- The server implements automatic token refresh
- Wait a few minutes and retry
- For heavy usage, consider spreading requests over time
Run mendeley-auth login to authenticate.
Your access token has expired. The server will attempt to refresh it automatically using your refresh token. If this fails, run mendeley-auth login again.
Your app may have been deauthorized. Re-authenticate with mendeley-auth login.
- Check the config file path is correct for your OS
- Ensure JSON is valid (no trailing commas)
- Restart Claude Desktop completely
- Check Claude's logs for errors
Contributions are welcome! Please:
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch
- Make your changes
- Run tests and linting
- Submit a pull request
MIT License - see LICENSE file.
This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Mendeley or Elsevier. Mendeley is a trademark of Elsevier B.V.
- Model Context Protocol by Anthropic
- FastMCP Python framework
- Mendeley API documentation