SemanticScholar Search Skill

Search academic papers, authors, and citations with detailed metadata using the Semantic Scholar API, supporting queries, paper details, author profiles, and...

Security Scan

The skill appears to implement the advertised Semantic Scholar queries and requires no unusual credentials, but the repository/install guidance includes remote install commands (curl | sh, npx from a third-party GitHub) and the package source/homepage are unknown — those factors merit caution before installing.

Purpose & Capability

Name, description, SKILL.md, README, requirements.txt, and the Python code all align: the code uses the semanticscholar library to search papers, fetch paper/author details, and citations. Declared dependencies (semanticscholar, requests) match the implementation.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md instructs the agent to perform searches, get paper/author details, and output results (console/json). The instructions and examples reference only Semantic Scholar API and local output files; there are no instructions to read unrelated system files, sweep environment variables, or send data to unexpected endpoints.

Install Mechanism

The registry contains no formal install spec, but README recommends installation methods that involve fetching code from an external GitHub user and running a remote installer (curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh). Executing remote install scripts (curl | sh) or using npx to pull directly from an external repo increases risk because arbitrary scripts could run on the host. The GitHub owner is not authoritative/verified in the metadata, and no release host verification is provided.

Credentials

The skill requires no environment variables by default and only documents an optional SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY for higher rate limits. That is proportionate for the described API usage. The code does not request unrelated secrets or multiple unrelated credentials.

Persistence & Privilege

Skill flags indicate no forced always-on presence; it is user-invocable and allows normal autonomous invocation. The package does not request system-wide config modifications in the files provided. No evidence it modifies other skills or global settings.

What to consider before installing

The skill's code and documentation are internally consistent with a Semantic Scholar client, but exercise caution before installing from an unverified source. Recommendations: - Prefer cloning the repository and reviewing files locally rather than running remote installers (avoid curl | sh). - Inspect the GitHub repo (owner JackKuo666) and commit history; confirm the code matches the packaged files. - Install dependencies inside an isolated virtual environment or sandbox (venv or container) rather than system-wide. - Avoid running the recommended remote installer (astral.sh) unless you trust that third-party tool; install uv or tools from their official pages or package managers instead. - If you need higher rate limits, provide an official Semantic Scholar API key only to the local process in a safe environment. If you can verify the repository and avoid running unreviewed remote scripts, the skill appears reasonable; if you cannot verify the source, do not install.

Semantic Scholar Search

AI-Powered Academic Paper Search Tool - Search academic papers through Semantic Scholar

Description

Search for academic papers, get detailed paper information, author profiles, and citation data through Semantic Scholar API. This skill provides comprehensive academic literature search capabilities with rich metadata extraction.

Features

• Paper Search: Search papers by keywords, titles, or authors
• Paper Details: Get detailed information including abstract, authors, citations
• Author Profiles: Retrieve author information, publication count, h-index
• Citation Analysis: Get citations and references for any paper
• Rich Metadata: Access venue, publication type, citation counts
• JSON Output: Export results in JSON format for further processing

Usage

/semantic-scholar-search Search for papers about "deep learning in computer vision"
/semantic-scholar-search Get details for paper ID "10.1038/nature12373"
/semantic-scholar-search Find author information for author ID "1741101"
/semantic-scholar-search Get citations and references for paper "10.1038/nature12373"

Examples

Search Papers

/semantic-scholar-search Find papers about "transformer architecture in natural language processing"

Get Paper Details

/semantic-scholar-search Get detailed information for paper with ID "10.1038/nature12373"

Get Author Profile

/semantic-scholar-search Get author profile for author ID "1741101"

Citation Analysis

/semantic-scholar-search Show citations and references for paper "10.1038/nature12373"

Command Reference

search

Search for papers on Semantic Scholar.

Option	Description
--query	Search query string
--results	Number of results (default: 10)
--output	Output file path
--format	Output format: console, json

paper

Get detailed information about a specific paper.

Option	Description
--paper-id	Paper ID or DOI (required)
--output	Output file path
--format	Output format: console, json

author

Get author details and statistics.

Option	Description
--author-id	Author ID (required)
--output	Output file path
--format	Output format: console, json

citations

Get citations and references for a paper.

Option	Description
--paper-id	Paper ID or DOI (required)
--limit	Number of citations/references to return (default: 10)
--output	Output file path
--format	Output format: console, json

Output Format

Console Output

标题: Attention Is All You Need
作者: Vaswani, A., et al.
年份: 2017
引用数: 50000+
会议: NeurIPS
摘要: This paper proposes the Transformer architecture...

JSON Format

{
  "paperId": "10.1038/nature12373",
  "title": "Paper Title",
  "abstract": "Paper abstract...",
  "year": "2020",
  "authors": [{"name": "Author Name", "authorId": "12345"}],
  "citationCount": 150,
  "venue": "Nature",
  "url": "https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/..."
}

Notes

• Semantic Scholar API is free and doesn't require authentication
• You can use DOI as paper ID (e.g., "10.1038/nature12373")
• Search results are ranked by relevance
• Citation counts are updated regularly
• Some papers may not have abstracts available

Related Skills

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• sci-hub-search-skill - Download papers from Sci-Hub