paper-lookup

paper-lookup is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from fabioc-aloha/Alex_Skill_Mall. It costs 122 tokens per session (2,484 once invoked), scanned A, a copy of paper-lookup, MIT.

A search workflow for finding research papers, preprints, citations, abstracts, and open-access copies across ten academic databases. A preprint is a research paper shared publicly before formal journal review; open access means it can be read without a subscription.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to search by topic, author, DOI, or PMID; find papers in fields such as medicine and computer science; retrieve metadata or full text; and check for open-access versions.
Why use it?
It helps match different research questions to suitable databases instead of searching one source manually and missing useful records or accessible full text.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Which agent this was written for is unclear — built for cline. Also seen: mentions Claude Code; mentions Codex; built for cline.

Good fit Use it to search by topic, author, DOI, or PMID; find papers in fields such as medicine and computer science; retrieve metadata or full text; and check for open-access versions.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/paper-lookup
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add fabioc-aloha/Alex_Skill_Mall --skill paper-lookup
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/fabioc-aloha/Alex_Skill_Mall

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for paper-lookup

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/paper-lookup/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/paper-lookup)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/paper-lookup"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/paper-lookup/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for paper-lookup

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/paper-lookup"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/paper-lookup.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 122 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,484 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin 100% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00122 $0.02484
Opus 5 $0.00061 $0.01242
Sonnet 5 $0.00024 $0.00497
Haiku 4.5 $0.00012 $0.00248

Measured 11d ago against content hash 9435d4859873, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-11, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

paper-lookup scanned grade A with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 11d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

| Claude Code | `WebFetch` | `curl` via Bash |
Origin

This is a copy

100% identical to paper-lookup — 4 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

plugins/academic-research/paper-lookup/skills/paper-lookup/SKILL.md · 192 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 192 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Paper Lookup

You have access to 10 academic paper databases through their REST APIs. Your job is to figure out which database(s) best serve the user's query, call them, and return the results.

Core Workflow

  1. Understand the query -- What is the user looking for? A specific paper by DOI? Papers on a topic? An author's publications? Open access PDFs? Full text? This determines which database(s) to hit.

  2. Select database(s) -- Use the database selection guide below. Many queries benefit from hitting multiple databases -- for example, searching PubMed for papers and then checking Unpaywall for open access copies.

  3. Read the reference file -- Each database has a reference file in references/ with endpoint details, query formats, and example calls. Read the relevant file(s) before making API calls.

  4. Make the API call(s) -- See the Making API Calls section below for which HTTP fetch tool to use on your platform.

  5. Return results -- Always return:

    • The raw JSON (or parsed XML for arXiv) response from each database
    • A list of databases queried with the specific endpoints used
    • If a query returned no results, say so explicitly rather than omitting it

Database Selection Guide

Match the user's intent to the right database(s).

By Use Case

User is asking about... Primary database(s) Also consider
Papers on a biomedical topic PubMed Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex
Full text of a biomedical article PMC CORE
Biology preprints bioRxiv Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex
Health/medical preprints medRxiv Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex
Physics, math, or CS preprints arXiv Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex
Papers across all fields OpenAlex Semantic Scholar, Crossref
A specific paper by DOI Crossref Unpaywall, Semantic Scholar
Open access PDF for a paper Unpaywall CORE, PMC
Citation graph (who cites whom) Semantic Scholar OpenAlex
Author's publications Semantic Scholar OpenAlex
Paper recommendations Semantic Scholar --
Full text (any field) CORE PMC (biomedical only)
Journal/publisher metadata Crossref OpenAlex
Funder information Crossref OpenAlex
Convert between PMID/PMCID/DOI PMC (ID Converter) Crossref
Recent preprints by date bioRxiv, medRxiv arXiv

Read the full file on GitHub · 192 lines

Files

What ships with it

10 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 11d ago First seen · 192 lines · 122 tokens per session scan A 9435d4859873

Subscribe to this mod's changes

paper-lookup is a skill published in the GitHub repository fabioc-aloha/Alex_Skill_Mall (4 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 122 tokens to every session and 2,484 once invoked, about $0.0006 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). It is 100% identical to paper-lookup, differing in 4 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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