| name | research |
| version | 2026.05.05 |
| effort | medium |
| triggers | arxiv|paper|research paper|citation|SOTA|prior art|doi|literature|literature review|preprint|study|publication|h-index|scholarly|academic|semantic scholar|openalex|pubmed|europepmc|crossref|dblp|unpaywall|internet archive|oreilly|find papers|who cites|survey of|novel claim|orcid|ror |
| description | Academic / literature research orchestrator. Routes intent -> best free tool first (arxiv, semantic_scholar, openalex, crossref, europepmc, pubmed, unpaywall, orcid, ror, dblp, openlibrary, internet_archive_search, oreilly_search), escalates to paid only when free < 3 hits. Auto-picks for "find papers on X", "prior art", "SOTA map", "who cites Y", "OA PDF for DOI", "author disambiguation", "literature review". NEVER WebFetch.
|
| composes_with | autoresearch, elite-loop, "!:discover" |
Research Skill — Academic & Literature Orchestrator
Replaces the 1-line Academic: context7 | arXiv routing in core-minimal.md
with a decision matrix and tested chain patterns.
All tools listed are FREE unless marked $. All via mcp__gateway__gateway_execute,
server prefix fulcrum:.
Prime directive
free-first -> escalate only when free<3 hits | NEVER WebFetch (~50K/call waste)
<3 hits on free -> try exa_search($0.005, semantic)
<3 hits on exa -> parallel_search($0.004, multi-hop)
still nothing -> widen query / drop filters before paying more
Research-type -> best-tool matrix (V evidence tested 2026-05-05)
| # | Intent | Primary (FREE) | Secondary | Why | Conf |
|---|
| 1 | Fresh preprints (last 6mo ML/CS) | arxiv_search sortBy=submittedDate | semantic_scholar year=2025-2026 | arxiv indexes preprints day-0; S2 lags ~weeks | V |
| 2 | Citation graph / influence | semantic_scholar fields=citationCount | openalex_search_works | S2 returns clean citationCount inline | V |
| 3 | Specific author's works | openalex_get_author | semantic_scholar + name | OpenAlex returns h-index + works_count + ORCID in one call; S2 needs paper->author hop | I |
| 4 | OA PDF for a DOI | unpaywall_find_open | europepmc_search (for biomed) | Unpaywall is THE canonical "is this free?" DB (~50M); does NOT index arXiv DOIs | V |
| 5 | Biomedical / clinical | europepmc_search | pubmed_search+pubmed_fetch_article | EPMC returns hasPDF/inEPMC/OA inline; PubMed only gives PMID list | V |
| 6 | CS-specific (established work) | semantic_scholar+arxiv_search | dblp_search | DBLP only indexes formally-published venues (0 hits on "Hebbian LLM memory" 2026-04-24); trap for fresh queries | V |
| 7 | Math-specific | arxiv_search cat:math.* | crossref_search_works | arXiv is the math preprint standard; crossref for published journals | I |
| 8 | Historical / archived / pre-arXiv terminology | internet_archive_search | openlibrary_search (books) / crossref_search_works (DOI lineage) | IA finds archived texts, old arXiv mirrors, proceedings, patents, and pre-current-keyword material; OpenLibrary is book metadata only | V |
| 9 | Multi-hop "cites X AND disputes Y" | parallel_search ($0.004) | exa_search type=neural | parallel_search built for chained multi-hop reasoning | I |
| 10 | Prior art (patent-claim grade) | chain: arxiv_search + semantic_scholar + internet_archive_search + exa_search | parallel_search | No single source; must triangulate preprint+published+archived web/text | I |
| 11 | SOTA map of a whole field | chain: arxiv_search (fresh) + semantic_scholar (influential, top-k by citations) + openalex_search_works (concept breadth) | exa_search fill gaps | 3 axes: recent / influential / conceptual cluster | V |
| 12 | Novel-claim validation (cross-discipline) | openalex_search_works (concepts graph) | semantic_scholar | OpenAlex concepts span 250M works + cross-field topics | I |
| 13 | Author disambiguation / institution | orcid_get_person + ror_search_organization | openalex_get_author | ORCID=canonical ID, ROR=canonical institution | I |
| 14 | Production engineering pattern / practitioner implementation | oreilly_search | oreilly_books_search for book-level bibliography | O'Reilly surfaces book/chapter-level implementation guidance and operator patterns that paper indexes often omit | V |
Confidence: V=tested today with real query | I=schema-level argument | A=assumption.
3 chain patterns (Rams #10 — less but better)
Pick one of these by intent. Default is pattern A.
A. "Find papers on X" / survey (DEFAULT for 90% of asks)
1. fulcrum:arxiv_search {search_query: "all:X AND all:Y", sortBy: "submittedDate", max_results: 10}
2. fulcrum:semantic_scholar {query: "X Y", limit: 10, fields: "title,authors,year,citationCount,externalIds,abstract"}
3. Merge: dedupe by DOI/ArXiv ID. Sort by (year desc, citationCount desc).
4. If historical, pre-arXiv, old terminology, or prior-art adjacent:
fulcrum:internet_archive_search {q: "mediatype:texts AND (\"X\" OR \"Y\")", rows: 10, fl: "identifier,title,creator,date,mediatype,downloads,subject", sort: "downloads desc"}
5. If the ask includes production engineering, agent/product implementation, operational memory, deployment, eval, or system-design practice:
fulcrum:oreilly_search {query: "X Y", formats: "book", limit: 10, sort: "relevance"}
6. Skip O'Reilly for pure citation counting, DOI/OA lookup, author disambiguation, or biomed-only searches; skip IA for fresh-only queries with a tight recent-year filter.
7. If free scholarly + IA/O'Reilly fanout still returns < 3 useful hits: fulcrum:exa_search {query: "...", category: "research_paper", num_results: 5}
B. "Prior art" / SOTA map
1. A + openalex_search_works {search: "X", per_page: 10, filter: "publication_year:2023-2026", select: "id,title,publication_year,doi,cited_by_count,authorships"}
(always pass 'select' — default response is ~35KB/result from inverted-index abstract)
2. For top-5 influential: semantic_scholar citations graph (paperId -> references + citations).
3. If patent-grade: add internet_archive_search for archived/pre-current-keyword evidence before paid web search.
4. If still under-covered: add parallel_search for non-paper web evidence.
C. "Who is author X" / "I have DOI Y"
Author: orcid_get_person <ORCID> || openalex_get_author <id_or_ORCID>
DOI->OA: unpaywall_find_open <doi> <email> (NOT for arXiv DOIs — 404)
DOI->md: crossref_get_doi <doi>
Parameter gotchas (save 5-10 rediscovery calls)
arxiv_search -> search_query (NOT query), sortBy, sortOrder, max_results
dblp_search -> q (NOT query), h (NOT limit)
openalex_search_works -> search (NOT query), per_page, filter, select (USE IT)
pubmed_search -> term (NOT query), retmax, sort
semantic_scholar -> query, limit, fields, year
europepmc_search -> query, pageSize, cursorMark
crossref_search_works -> query, rows, filter
exa_search -> query, category (research_paper), num_results, type
internet_archive_search -> q (Lucene), rows, fl, sort; use mediatype:texts for papers/books/proceedings
oreilly_search -> query, formats, limit, page, sort; use formats=book for book/chapter results
oreilly_books_search -> query, limit, page; use for whole-book bibliography/ISBN, not narrow chapter evidence
unpaywall_find_open -> doi, email REQUIRED; use parm@iki.fi; fails on 10.48550/arXiv.* (use publisher DOI)
openalex: pass `select: "id,title,publication_year,doi,cited_by_count,authorships"` or response is ~35KB/hit
Output format (citation-ready)
One line per hit. Year desc. Drop duplicates by DOI/ArXiv ID.
<Title> — <Authors> (<Year>) arXiv:<id> | doi:<doi> | cites:<n>
Example:
Hebbian Memory-Augmented Recurrent Networks — Szelogowski (2025) arXiv:2507.21474 | doi:10.48550/arXiv.2507.21474 | cites:2
HeLa-Mem: Hebbian Learning and Associative Memory for LLM Agents — Zhu, Li, Zhang et al. (2026) arXiv:2604.16839 | ACL 2026 | cites:0
Cost ceiling rules
FREE budget -> unlimited (arxiv, S2, openalex, crossref, EPMC, pubmed, unpaywall, orcid, ror, dblp, openlibrary, internet_archive_search, oreilly_search/oreilly_books_search)
$0.005 exa -> OK if free returned <3 hits OR semantic query needs neural
$0.004 parallel -> OK only for multi-hop chains (pattern B with patent-grade ask)
$0.01 tavily -> last resort only
WebFetch -> NEVER (~50K tokens = $0.25 equivalent in context)
Test evidence (2026-04-24, query: "Hebbian learning LLM memory")
| Tool | Hits | Top result | Cost |
|---|
| arxiv_search (sort=submittedDate) | 2 | HeLa-Mem (2026-04-18, ACL 2026) | FREE |
| semantic_scholar | 11,990 | Hebbian Memory-Augmented RNN (2025, cites:2) | FREE |
| openalex_search_works (2024-26) | 261 | HeLa-Mem | FREE but 113KB payload — USE select |
| crossref_search_works | 3,080,234 | Short-term Hebbian ~ transformer attention (Ellwood 2023, PLoS) | FREE |
| europepmc_search | 5,553 | Anti-Hebbian replay (Hippocampus 2026) — all biomed | FREE |
| pubmed_search | 539 | biomed-only, PMID list only | FREE |
| dblp_search | 0 | — (DBLP too conservative for fresh preprint queries) | FREE |
| exa_search category=research_paper | 2 | HeLa-Mem arxiv abs URL | $0.007 |
| unpaywall_find_open (arXiv DOI) | 404 | — (doesn't index arXiv DOIs) | FREE |
| unpaywall_find_open (publisher DOI 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011843) | gold OA | PLoS PDF + PMC mirror + DOAJ | FREE |
| internet_archive_search mediatype:texts | 93 | archived patents/proceedings and older neural-memory/Hebbian-learning texts, e.g. dHAN associative thought (2007) and visual-cortex Hebbian learning (2005) | FREE |
oreilly_search "LLM memory" OR "AI agents memory" | 28 | AI Agents and Applications ch.14 "Productionizing AI agents: Memory, guardrails, and beyond"; Hands-On GenAI appendix "LLM Memory Requirements" | FREE |
Winning combo for this query: Pattern A core (arxiv_search + semantic_scholar)
plus conditional free fanout. internet_archive_search adds older/pre-current-keyword
and patent/proceedings context; oreilly_search adds practitioner LLM/agent-memory
chapters. No paid escalation needed when these free fanouts produce useful context.
dblp was 0-hit noise; crossref found a 2023 paper the others missed via keyword ranking
so it's worth as a 3rd cross-check for survey/prior-art.
Composition
- Metric-hill-climb of a target file -> use
autoresearch skill (different tool).
- Debate/multi-perspective decisions -> use
swarm-templates/research-council.
- Autonomous discovery loop -> use
/!:discover or /!:autoresearch (slash command).
- This skill = literature search orchestration only.
Quick recipes
# "SOTA map of hebbian memory"
-> Pattern B with year=2023-2026, top-10 by (year, cites)
# "Find papers by Hinton on forward-forward"
-> openalex_get_author "Geoffrey Hinton" -> filter works by title contains "forward-forward"
OR semantic_scholar query "forward-forward Hinton"
# "Is DOI 10.1038/nature12373 open access?"
-> unpaywall_find_open doi=10.1038/nature12373 email=parm@iki.fi
(returns best_oa_location.url_for_pdf if OA)
# "Recent CS papers about X (last 30 days)"
-> arxiv_search search_query="all:X AND cat:cs.*" sortBy=submittedDate max_results=20
2026.05.05 | supersedes Academic: context7 | arXiv line in core-minimal.md
