| name | openalex-literature-search |
| description | Use this skill to run fast literature triage against OpenAlex when you need public paper metadata, citation-linked context, and structured JSON output. Do not use it when you need full text, proprietary databases, or offline execution. |
Purpose
Search OpenAlex works metadata and save a reproducible JSON result set for paper triage.
When to use
- You need a quick literature sweep for a topic or method.
- You want machine-readable metadata for downstream ranking or deduplication.
When not to use
- You need full-text content or article annotations.
- You are working without network access.
Inputs
- Search query string
- Optional
--per-page, --mailto, and --out
Outputs
- JSON payload from the OpenAlex works search endpoint
Requirements
- Python 3.13+
- Network access to
api.openalex.org
Procedure
- Run
python3 skills/scientific-knowledge/openalex-literature-search/scripts/search_openalex.py --query "single-cell RNA-seq" --per-page 5 --out skills/scientific-knowledge/openalex-literature-search/assets/openalex_single_cell.json.
- Inspect the
meta block for count and pagination.
- Use the first-pass results to rank or expand follow-up searches.
Validation
- Command exits successfully.
- Output JSON contains
meta and results.
results is non-empty for a known topic.
Failure modes and fixes
- HTTP 403 or throttling: provide
--mailto and reduce request rate.
- Empty results: broaden the query or remove over-specific phrasing.
Safety and limits
- This skill surfaces public metadata only.
- Respect API terms and do not turn literature discovery into unsafe experimental planning.
Examples
python3 .../search_openalex.py --query "spatial transcriptomics benchmark" --per-page 3
Provenance
Related skills
