# endnote-mcp

Gives your agent an EndNote library it can query: record lookup, page-level PDF reading, citations and bibliographies. The index stays on your disk.

- MCP server · `type=mcp` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf (Devin Desktop), Cline, Zed, Gemini CLI · ★ 56
- Author: gokmengokhan
- License: AGPL-3.0 · policy=link-only · description only; the file stays with the author
- Source: https://github.com/gokmengokhan/endnote-mcp
- Updated: 2026-10-23
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/mcp/endnote-mcp

## What it does

Twelve tools sit in front of an EndNote library. The agent can look records up by keyword, pull a range of pages out of a paper's PDF, get one citation formatted, assemble a bibliography from a list of record numbers, dump entries as BibTeX, or find titles close to a given one. Search runs over a local SQLite index with full-text matching.

The pipeline starts with an XML export from EndNote. Indexing picks it up: metadata is queryable within seconds while PDF text and vectors are still being written in the background. Meaning-based lookup is a separate step — `pip install endnote-mcp[semantic]` and then `endnote-mcp embed`, which runs `all-MiniLM-L6-v2` on-device. No API key enters the picture.

One gotcha before you wire it up. The Claude Code plugin launches the server by calling `endnote-mcp serve`, so that binary has to sit on your `PATH`; without it the tools never show up. And if you already registered the same server via `claude mcp add`, Claude Code keeps a single connection — a different command or path leaves you with duplicated tools until `claude mcp remove endnote`.

## Requirements
- Needs: Python and uv (commands run via uvx)

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

**Platform CLI**
```bash
claude mcp add endnote-mcp -- uvx endnote-mcp
```
uvx runs the command named after the package; if the README names another one, use uvx --from endnote-mcp <command>

### Codex

**Platform CLI**
```bash
codex mcp add endnote-mcp -- uvx endnote-mcp
```
uvx runs the command named after the package; if the README names another one, use uvx --from endnote-mcp <command>

### Cursor

**Config file**
File `.cursor/mcp.json`:
```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "endnote-mcp": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "endnote-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}
```
uvx runs the command named after the package; if the README names another one, use uvx --from endnote-mcp <command>

### GitHub Copilot

**Config file**
File `.vscode/mcp.json`:
```json
{
    "servers": {
        "endnote-mcp": {
            "type": "stdio",
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "endnote-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}
```
uvx runs the command named after the package; if the README names another one, use uvx --from endnote-mcp <command>

### Gemini CLI

**Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini mcp add endnote-mcp uvx endnote-mcp
```
uvx runs the command named after the package; if the README names another one, use uvx --from endnote-mcp <command>

## When to use it
- look up papers in the library by author and topic
- extract pages 5-7 from one paper's PDF
- turn a list of record numbers into a bibliography
- get an APA citation for a single record
- export chosen records as BibTeX

## Example prompts
- Which papers in my EndNote library cover scenario planning?
- Give me the APA citation for record #1234.
- Read pages 5-7 of the Smith paper and check how the quote is worded.

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