academic-search-mcp-server vs filesystem

Side-by-side comparison to help you pick between these two MCP servers.

	academic-search-mcp-server by afrise	filesystem by modelcontextprotocol
Stars	★ 113	★ 85,748
30d uses	—	—
Score	41	77
Official	—	✓
Categories	SearchAI / LLM ToolsDeveloper Tools	File SystemDeveloper ToolsProductivity
Language	Python	TypeScript
Last commit	15 mo ago	this month

academic-search-mcp-server · Summary

An MCP server that enables Claude to search and retrieve academic papers from Semantic Scholar and Crossref.

filesystem · Summary

A feature-rich MCP server for filesystem operations with dynamic directory access control.

academic-search-mcp-server · Use cases

Researchers can quickly find relevant papers without leaving their conversation with Claude
Academic writers can verify citations and explore related research in real-time
Students can discover papers for literature reviews and assignments

filesystem · Use cases

Enable AI models to read and write project files during development
Allow Claude or other MCP clients to browse and analyze codebases
Provide secure sandboxed access to specific directories for content generation

academic-search-mcp-server · Install

Installation

Via Smithery (automatic)

npx -y @smithery/cli install @afrise/academic-search-mcp-server --client claude

Manual installation with uv

Install dependencies:

uv add "mcp[cli]" httpx

Set up API keys in your environment or .env file:

SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY=your_key_here
CROSSREF_API_KEY=your_key_here

Run the server:

uv run server.py

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "academic-search": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run ", "/path/to/server/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "your_key_here",
        "CROSSREF_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

filesystem · Install

Installation

Using NPX

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "/path/to/allowed/directory"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Using Docker

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "--mount", "type=bind,src=/path/to/allowed/dir,dst=/projects/allowed/dir",
        "mcp/filesystem",
        "/projects"
      ]
    }
  }
}

VS Code Extension

Click the installation buttons in the README to install directly in VS Code.

Comparison generated from public README + GitHub signals. Last updated automatically.