inspire

name	inspire
description	Use when the user mentions 'INSPIRE', 'INSPIRE-HEP', 'inspirehep', or asks to search high-energy physics literature, find HEP papers, get citation counts, or retrieve BibTeX from INSPIRE. Specializes in particle physics, quantum field theory, and related fields.

INSPIRE-HEP Search and Retrieval Skill

Search and retrieve papers from INSPIRE-HEP, the high-energy physics literature database.

Requires: requests (pip install requests)

Record Identifiers

INSPIRE accepts multiple identifier types:

• INSPIRE recid: 451647 (internal ID)
• arXiv ID: 1207.7214 or hep-th/9711200
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.19.1264

Basic Usage

# Get a record by INSPIRE ID
python scripts/inspire.py 451647

# Get by arXiv ID
python scripts/inspire.py 1207.7214

# Get by DOI
python scripts/inspire.py 10.1103/PhysRevLett.19.1264

# Get BibTeX
python scripts/inspire.py 1207.7214 --format bibtex

Searching

# Search by author (SPIRES syntax)
python scripts/inspire.py --search "a E.Witten.1"

# Search by title
python scripts/inspire.py --search "t dark matter"

# Search by arXiv category
python scripts/inspire.py --search "arXiv:hep-th"

# Combined search
python scripts/inspire.py --search "a Maldacena and t AdS/CFT"

# Most cited results
python scripts/inspire.py --search "a Hawking" --sort mostcited

# Limit results
python scripts/inspire.py --search "t supersymmetry" -n 5

Search Query Syntax (SPIRES-compatible)

Prefix	Field	Example
a	Author	a E.Witten.1
t	Title	t black hole
k	Keywords	k inflation
j	Journal	j Phys.Rev.Lett.
eprint	arXiv ID	eprint 1207.7214
topcite	Citation count	topcite 1000+

Boolean operators: and, or, not

Citations

# Get papers citing a record
python scripts/inspire.py 1207.7214 --citations

# Top 20 citing papers
python scripts/inspire.py 1207.7214 --citations -n 20

Output Formats

# JSON (default - shows metadata)
python scripts/inspire.py 1207.7214

# BibTeX
python scripts/inspire.py 1207.7214 --format bibtex

# LaTeX (European style)
python scripts/inspire.py 1207.7214 --format latex-eu

# LaTeX (US style)
python scripts/inspire.py 1207.7214 --format latex-us

Typical Workflow

1. Search for papers: python scripts/inspire.py --search "a Author"
2. Note the INSPIRE recid or arXiv ID
3. Get full details: python scripts/inspire.py <id>
4. Get BibTeX for citation: python scripts/inspire.py <id> --format bibtex
5. Check citations: python scripts/inspire.py <id> --citations

Rate Limits

INSPIRE allows 15 requests per 5-second window per IP address.

Comparison with arXiv Skill

• INSPIRE: Citation counts, publication info, SPIRES search syntax, HEP-focused
• arXiv: Paper source code (LaTeX), all physics categories, preprint access

Use both together: search on INSPIRE for citation data, then use arXiv skill to get the paper source.