search-paper

name	search-paper
description	Use when the user wants to search, inspect, or retrieve academic papers through search-paper-cli. This skill keeps the workflow on direct `search-paper-cli ...` commands, can auto-install the CLI when missing, and relies on process env plus `~/.config/search-paper-cli/config.yaml` / `config.yml` for runtime configuration.
license	MIT
compatibility	Requires POSIX sh. Auto-install prefers Go; Linux amd64 can also install from GitHub release artifacts with curl or wget and tar.
metadata	{"repository":"github.com/jtsang4/search-paper-cli"}

Search Paper

Use this skill when you need to run search-paper-cli directly.

Keep command usage in references/USAGE.md. The bundled helper script is install/locate-only and does not inject runtime configuration.

Available scripts

• scripts/ensure-search-paper-cli.sh — resolves the CLI path and auto-installs the latest version when the command is missing.

Workflow

1. If you need command examples or subcommand guidance, read references/USAGE.md.

2. Run the CLI directly:

   search-paper-cli <command> [args...]
   

   Prefer get --as pdf for file retrieval and get --as text for extracted-content retrieval. Legacy download and read aliases still work, but prefer get so the retrieval target stays explicit for agents.

3. If search-paper-cli is missing, run sh scripts/ensure-search-paper-cli.sh to locate or install it. After that, invoke the CLI directly from your PATH, or prepend the returned binary directory to PATH for the current shell.

4. Runtime configuration comes only from exact SEARCH_PAPER_* environment variables plus ~/.config/search-paper-cli/config.yaml with config.yml fallback.

5. Process environment wins per key over the global config file. Explicitly empty env values still count as overrides and block fallback for that key.

6. Required variable / config key for Unpaywall-backed behavior: SEARCH_PAPER_UNPAYWALL_EMAIL / unpaywall_email.

7. This skill only recognizes exact SEARCH_PAPER_-prefixed environment variables. Do not infer non-prefixed or fuzzy-matched variable names.

8. Do not use SEARCH_PAPER_ENV_FILE, cwd .env, repository-root .env, or skill-local .env files as runtime inputs. They are ignored by the direct CLI workflow.

9. Prefer search --from-date YYYY-MM-DD --to-date YYYY-MM-DD for day-level time windows. The CLI enforces these locally on final results and returns date_precision: year|month|day when a provider exposes coarse dates.

10. search --year remains a hard year-level constraint. Pass it only in YYYY or YYYY-YYYY form. Use one date mode per command: --year or --from-date / --to-date.

11. If some sources fail but others succeed, treat the result as degraded mode. Inspect partial_success_reason, failed_sources, and errors.

12. Prefer the CLI's default JSON output unless the user explicitly asks for text output.

13. Avoid presenting agent callers with ambiguous retrieval choices. Use search for discovery, then get --as pdf|text for retrieval. Only use legacy download or read when compatibility with older callers is required.