NobleBlocks MCP Server
Search 340 million deduplicated academic papers from Claude Desktop, Claude Web, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, or any MCP-compatible tool. Covers 15+ academic databases — all cross-linked through a biomedical knowledge graph with 1.3M+ entities and 109M+ paper connections.
This is a thin authenticated client — all indexing, ranking, vector search, and knowledge graph traversal runs on the NobleBlocks backend. You get fast results without managing any infrastructure.
What's in the index
| Source | Papers | Updates |
|---|
| OpenAlex | ~250M works | Daily |
| Semantic Scholar | ~220M papers | Weekly |
| PubMed / MEDLINE | ~41M articles | Daily |
| Europe PMC | ~43M articles | Daily |
| Crossref | Incremental | Daily |
| arXiv | ~2.5M preprints | Daily |
| bioRxiv / medRxiv | ~1K/day | Daily |
| ClinicalTrials.gov | ~582K trials | Daily |
| Unpaywall | OA link resolution | Daily |
| DBLP | Computer science | Via OpenAlex |
| CORE | ~37M open access outputs | Coming soon |
| BASE (Bielefeld) | Discovery metadata | Via OpenAlex |
| DOAJ | Open access journals | Via Crossref |
| Papers with Code | ML/AI benchmarks | Weekly |
| Retraction Watch | Retraction status | Weekly |
| USPTO / EPO patents | ~9.3M patent-paper links | Daily |
| …and others | | |
All sources are cross-deduplicated on DOI, PMID, and arXiv ID. Total unique records after dedup: 340M+ (June 2026).
Knowledge graph
The search backend also maintains a biomedical knowledge graph (1.3M+ entities, 109M+ paper links) with genes, diseases, drugs, proteins, institutions, researchers, topics, genetic variants, and drug-target-disease relationships sourced from PubTator Central, DisGeNET, ChEMBL, UniProt, ROR, ORCID, Open Targets, and others.
Tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|
search_papers | Full-text + semantic hybrid search with year/citation/source filters |
get_paper | Fetch metadata by DOI, PMID, arXiv ID, or OpenAlex ID |
find_similar | Find papers related by meaning, not just keyword matching |
get_citation_graph | Citation network — references and citing papers |
search_by_entity | Find papers linked to a gene, drug, disease, or institution via the KG |
create_literature_review | AI-generated structured lit review with citations (Pro) |
Get an API key
All usage requires a free NobleBlocks account. Sign up takes 30 seconds:
- Go to nobleblocks.com/signup
- Create an account (email or Google)
- Navigate to Settings > API Keys and generate a key
Free plan: 100 searches/day, 5 similar/day, citation graph access.
Pro plan: 5,000 searches/day, literature review generation, priority support.
Quick start (Remote — no install needed)
The easiest way to get started is the remote connector — no API keys, no Python install:
- Open claude.ai → Settings → Connectors (or Integrations)
- Click "Add" and paste:
https://mcp.nobleblocks.com/mcp
- Sign in with your NobleBlocks account
- Ask Claude: "Search for papers on CRISPR gene therapy"
Install (Local)
uvx nobleblocks-mcp
Configure Claude Desktop
Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):
{
"mcpServers": {
"nobleblocks": {
"command": "nobleblocks-mcp",
"env": {
"NOBLEBLOCKS_API_KEY": "nb_pk_your_key_here"
}
}
}
}
Restart Claude Desktop. The NobleBlocks tools will appear in the tools list.
Configure VS Code Copilot
Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your project:
{
"servers": {
"nobleblocks": {
"command": "nobleblocks-mcp",
"env": {
"NOBLEBLOCKS_API_KEY": "nb_pk_your_key_here"
}
}
}
}
Configure Cursor / Cline / Continue
Point your editor's MCP settings at the nobleblocks-mcp command with stdio transport. Set NOBLEBLOCKS_API_KEY in the environment.
CLI usage
You can also search directly from the terminal:
# Search papers
nobleblocks search "CRISPR base editing" --limit 5 --min-year 2022
# Get a specific paper
nobleblocks get 10.1038/s41586-020-2649-2
# Find similar papers
nobleblocks similar "Attention Is All You Need"
# Citation graph
nobleblocks citations 10.1038/s41586-020-2649-2 --direction both
All CLI commands require NOBLEBLOCKS_API_KEY set in your environment (or pass --key).
Environment variables
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
NOBLEBLOCKS_API_KEY | (required) | Your API key from nobleblocks.com |
NOBLEBLOCKS_API_BASE | https://www.nobleblocks.com | API endpoint |
LOG_LEVEL | INFO | Logging verbosity |
Examples
Once configured, ask naturally in Claude/Cursor:
"Find the most-cited papers on CRISPR base editing from 2022-2024"
"Show me papers similar to 'Attention Is All You Need' by Vaswani"
"What papers cite DOI 10.1038/s41586-020-2649-2?"
"Find papers linking BRCA1 to drug resistance"
"Generate a literature review on CAR-T cell therapy in solid tumors"
Development
git clone https://github.com/nobleblocks/nobleblocks-mcp.git
cd nobleblocks-mcp
pip install -e .
# Test with MCP Inspector
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector nobleblocks-mcp
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Built by NobleBlocks — the academic research platform for the AI era.
