Use when searching academic papers via Ai2 Asta (Semantic Scholar corpus) through the Asta MCP server. Triggers on academic search, paper lookup, citation traversal, author search, or snippet search when the Asta MCP server is configured. Works with Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, OpenClaw, Windsurf, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.
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Use when searching academic papers via Ai2 Asta (Semantic Scholar corpus) through the Asta MCP server. Triggers on academic search, paper lookup, citation traversal, author search, or snippet search when the Asta MCP server is configured. Works with Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, OpenClaw, Windsurf, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.
license
MIT
homepage
https://github.com/Agents365-ai/asta-skill
compatibility
Requires an MCP-capable host (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, Hermes, OpenClaw) with the Asta MCP server registered at https://asta-tools.allen.ai/mcp/v1 using an x-api-key header. The skill does not make HTTP calls itself.
Asta is Ai2's Scientific Corpus Tool, exposing the Semantic Scholar academic graph over MCP (streamable HTTP transport). This skill tells agents which Asta tool to call for which intent, and how to compose them into useful workflows.
Before invoking any tool, verify the Asta MCP server is registered in the host agent. Tool names will be prefixed by the MCP server name chosen at install time (commonly asta__<tool> or mcp__asta__<tool>). If no Asta tools are visible, direct the user to the Installation section below.
Tool Map — Intent → Asta Tool
User intent
Asta tool
Notes
Broad topic search
search_papers_by_relevance
Supports venue + date filters
Known paper title
search_paper_by_title
Optional venue restriction
Known DOI / arXiv / PMID / CorpusId / MAG / ACL / SHA / URL
get_paper
Single-paper lookup
Multiple known IDs at once
get_paper_batch
Batch lookup — prefer over N sequential get_paper calls
Who cited paper X
get_citations
Citation traversal with filters, paginated
Find author by name
search_authors_by_name
Returns profile info
An author's publications
get_author_papers
Pass author id from previous call
Find passages mentioning X
snippet_search
~500-word excerpts from paper bodies
All tools accept date-range filters and field selection — pass them whenever the user's intent constrains scope (e.g., "recent", "since 2022", "at NeurIPS").
⚠️ fields parameter — avoid context blowups
get_paper / get_paper_batch accept a fields string. Never request citations or references via fields — a single highly-cited paper (e.g. Attention Is All You Need) returns 200k+ characters and will overflow the agent's context window. Use the dedicated get_citations tool instead (it paginates).
Safe default fields for get_paper:
title,year,authors,venue,tldr,url,abstract
Add journal, publicationDate, fieldsOfStudy, isOpenAccess only when needed.
Prefer batched intent over ping-pong. If the user's question needs two independent lookups, issue them as parallel MCP tool calls in one turn, not sequentially.
Never guess IDs. If a user gives a fuzzy title, use search_paper_by_title before get_paper.
Respect rate limits. An API key buys higher limits but not unlimited — stop expanding citation graphs beyond what the user asked for.
Do not fabricate fields. If Asta returns null abstract or venue, say so rather than inventing.
Relationship to semanticscholar-skill
Both wrap the Semantic Scholar corpus, but target different runtimes:
LM Studio 0.3.17+ supports remote MCP servers. Edit ~/.lmstudio/mcp.json (macOS/Linux) or %USERPROFILE%\.lmstudio\mcp.json (Windows) — or in the app: Program tab → Install > Edit mcp.json:
Only models with "Tool Use: Supported" in LM Studio's model loader will be able to call Asta tools. Recommended: Qwen 2.5 / 3 Instruct (7B+), Llama 3.1 / 3.3 Instruct (8B+), Mistral / Mixtral Instruct.
OpenClaw
Install this skill into ~/.openclaw/skills/asta-skill/ and register the MCP server in your OpenClaw config using the same URL + x-api-key header pattern. The skill's frontmatter declares ASTA_API_KEY as required via metadata.openclaw.requires.env.
Verification
After installation, ask the agent: "Use Asta to look up the paper with DOI 10.48550/arXiv.1706.03762." A successful call returns the "Attention Is All You Need" paper metadata. If the agent reports no Asta tools, the MCP server is not registered — re-check the config file path and restart the host.
Troubleshooting
Symptom
Cause
Fix
401 Unauthorized
Missing or invalid x-api-key
Verify ASTA_API_KEY is set and header is forwarded
429 Too Many Requests
Rate limit hit
Slow down / batch; ensure API key is attached (unauth'd limits are lower)
No Asta tools visible
MCP server not registered in host
Re-run install step, restart agent
Empty abstract
Not all corpus papers have full text
Use snippet_search instead, or fall back to title + TLDR
Author disambiguation wrong
Common name collisions
Inspect affiliations in search_authors_by_name before calling get_author_papers
