| name | deepxiv |
| description | Use DeepXiv as an agent-first paper search and progressive reading lane for arXiv, PMC, bioRxiv, and medRxiv friendly literature. Best for fast paper discovery, `brief -> head -> section -> full` reading, and identifier recovery before a local library intake step. |
DeepXiv
Use this skill when the user needs a paper-native search and reading surface, not a broad web crawl.
DeepXiv is best treated as:
- a literature access substrate
- a progressive reading interface
- a shortlist and identifier recovery lane
Do not treat it as:
- a replacement for the user's long-term literature library
- the only acquisition path
- a project-specific knowledge base
Best-Fit Use Cases
Use this skill for:
- arXiv / PMC friendly paper search
- quickly shortlisting papers before deep reading
brief -> head -> section -> full progressive access
- recovering arXiv IDs, DOI-based bioRxiv / medRxiv access, or PMC handles
- preparing inputs for
literature-finder-downloader or a project-local library skill
Prefer another lane when:
- the task is broad web discovery across blogs, repos, news, and forums
- the user already has BibTeX / RIS / DOI batches and wants end-to-end downloading
- the main job is bibliography management or long-term attachment organization
Setup
Prefer the bundled isolated runtime first:
deepxiv-local --help
Fallback wrapper path:
$CODEX_HOME/skills/deepxiv/scripts/deepxiv_local.sh --help
If that wrapper is unavailable, check whether the CLI is already available:
command -v deepxiv
If not installed, install it with Python user packages:
python3 -m pip install --user -U "deepxiv-sdk[all]"
Minimum package if only the reader/CLI lane is needed:
python3 -m pip install --user -U deepxiv-sdk
Recommended local-isolated install for this skill:
python3 -m venv $CODEX_HOME/skills/deepxiv/.venv
$CODEX_HOME/skills/deepxiv/.venv/bin/python -m pip install -U pip setuptools wheel
$CODEX_HOME/skills/deepxiv/.venv/bin/python -m pip install -U "deepxiv-sdk[all]"
Important token behavior:
- on first CLI use, DeepXiv may auto-register an anonymous token and write it to
~/.env
- if the user wants explicit control, prefer configuring the token manually instead of relying on auto-registration
Explicit token options:
deepxiv config --token YOUR_TOKEN
export DEEPXIV_TOKEN="YOUR_TOKEN"
deepxiv paper 2409.05591 --token YOUR_TOKEN --brief
Default Workflow
1. Search
Start with a small search pass:
deepxiv-local search "trajectory recovery" --limit 5
deepxiv-local search "trajectory representation learning" --limit 10
deepxiv-local search "image generation" --date-from 2026-03-01 --limit 20
If machine-readable output is helpful:
deepxiv-local search "trajectory recovery" --limit 20 --format json
For web-profile search:
deepxiv-local wsearch "karpathy"
deepxiv-local wsearch "karpathy" --json
2. Progressive Reading
Once you have a candidate paper id, read in layers:
deepxiv-local paper 2505.13857 --brief
deepxiv-local paper 2505.13857 --head
deepxiv-local paper 2505.13857 --section Introduction
deepxiv-local paper 2505.13857 --section Experiments
deepxiv-local paper 2505.13857
Interpretation:
--brief
--head
- section map and token distribution
--section
- load only the useful part
- bare
paper
- full content access when the cheaper layers were not enough
Use --brief before --head, and --head before section or full reads unless the user explicitly asks for the full paper immediately.
3. Non-arXiv Open Literature
PMC:
deepxiv-local pmc PMC544940 --head
bioRxiv / medRxiv by DOI:
deepxiv-local biorxiv 10.1101/2021.02.26.433129 --section Introduction,Methods
deepxiv-local paper 10.1101/2021.02.26.433129 --biorxiv
deepxiv-local paper 10.1101/2021.02.26.433129 --biorxiv --section Introduction
Source-specific search:
deepxiv-local search "protein design" --biorxiv --limit 5
deepxiv-local search "Alzheimer" --medrxiv --date-from 2024-01
Acquisition Boundaries
DeepXiv is excellent for shortlist construction and progressive reading, but it is not the user's durable library home.
When the user wants:
- many papers downloaded locally
- a seed folder with PDF attachments
- metadata tables and unresolved queues
route from DeepXiv into literature-finder-downloader.
When the user wants:
- a project-specific paper library
- both local PDF and Markdown under a stable repo path
route from DeepXiv into the relevant project-local literature skill.
Practical Patterns
Pattern A: shortlist first, acquire later
deepxiv search ...
deepxiv paper <id> --brief
deepxiv paper <id> --head
- keep only the papers worth acquisition
- pass the identifiers into
literature-finder-downloader
Pattern B: compare methods cheaply
- search one focused topic
- run
--brief on 3 to 10 candidates
- run
--head only on the strongest subset
- read
Introduction, Method, and Experiments sections only
Pattern C: prepare a project library update
- use DeepXiv to recover strong candidates and identifiers
- acquire durable local attachments through the project's literature lane
- keep DeepXiv as the external access layer, not the final storage layer
Output Contract
When using this skill, report:
- what was searched
- which identifiers or papers were shortlisted
- which progressive-reading layer was used
- what remains uncertain
- whether the next step should be:
- more DeepXiv reading
- durable acquisition via
literature-finder-downloader
- handoff into a project-local paper library
Common Triggers
- “用 DeepXiv 先搜几篇相关论文”
- “先别整篇读,先给我 brief/head 看看值不值得深读”
- “帮我用 DeepXiv 找到这篇论文的 arXiv / PMC 入口”
- “把 DeepXiv 当成论文搜索和预读入口,再接到本地下载链”