| name | literature-search-openalex |
| description | > Query the OpenAlex scholarly database for research papers, authors, institutions, topics, sources, publishers, funders, geo-locations, and keywords. Use when searching academic papers, resolving DOIs, downloading open-access PDFs, finding an author's publications, aggregating bibliometric data (citation counts, h-index, impact factor), exploring the research taxonomies, or performing DOI lookups. |
OpenAlex Skill
Prerequisites
-
uv: Read the uv skill and follow its Setup instructions to ensure
uv is installed and on PATH.
-
User Notification: If LICENSE_NOTIFICATION.txt does not already exist in
this skill directory then (1) prominently notify the user to check the terms
at https://developers.openalex.org/ and to always check the license of the
papers retrieved by the skill for any restrictions, then (2) create the file
recording the notification text and timestamp.
-
.env file: Make sure the .env file exists in your home directory.
Create one if it does not exist.
-
OPENALEX_API_KEY (optional but recommended): Enables the OpenAlex
Premium API with higher rate limits. The skill works without it (using the
free "polite pool"). If the variable is missing from .env, do NOT ask the
user to paste it into the chat (this would leak the key into the agent's
context). Instead, give the user this command — substituting ENV_FILE
with the resolved literal path to the .env file:
printf "Enter OpenAlex API key (typing hidden): " && read -s key && echo && echo "OPENALEX_API_KEY=$key" >> "ENV_FILE" && echo "Saved."
The scripts load credentials automatically via dotenv. NEVER read,
print, or inspect the .env file or its variables (e.g. no cat, grep,
echo, printenv, or os.environ.get on keys). Credentials must stay out
of the agent's context. See the Rate Limits section for more
details.
Core Rules
- List Sources. If this skill is used, ensure this is mentioned in the
output AND list the URLs of all papers that were used in producing the
output.
- Resolve before filter. NEVER filter by name. Always
resolve a name to
an ID first, then use that ID in --filter.
- Use the CLI only. Never call the API via
curl/urllib. The CLI
handles retries and rate limiting.
- No fabrication. Never invent OpenAlex IDs or DOIs. Use
resolve/get
to look them up. Report empty results accurately.
- API key. If a command returns 401/429 or you need high-volume queries,
follow the prerequisite instructions above to help the user add
OPENALEX_API_KEY to the .env file. Keys are at OpenAlex.org → account
settings.
- Keep output small. Always use
--select and --per-page 5–10 for
overview queries. Pipe filter output to a file (> results.json), then
slim with jq before reading into context.
Rate Limits
- With key: ~10 req/s, $1/day free budget.
- Without key: Very limited, $0.01/day budget.
| Operation | Cost |
|---|
Singleton get | Free |
filter | $0.0001 |
--search / resolve | $0.001 |
download-pdf | $0.01 |
CLI Reference
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py [--api-key KEY] <command> [flags]
Entity types (shared across commands): works, authors, sources,
institutions, topics, domains, fields, subfields, sdgs, countries,
continents, languages, keywords, publishers, funders, work-types,
source-types, institution-types, licenses
Commands
resolve <entity> <query> — Name → ID candidates. Returns id,
display_name, hint. Use --per-page N for more candidates.
get <entity> <id> — Full metadata for one entity. Accepts short ID
(W2741809807), full URL, or DOI URL. Use --select to limit fields.
filter <entity> — Search/filter entities. Key flags are:
--search <query>: Full-text search (10× cost of --filter)--filter <expr>: Filter expressions. Use , for AND and | for OR.--sort <field:dir>: Sort results (e.g., cited_by_count:desc)--select <fields>: Limit the fields returned in the output.--group-by <field>: Aggregate results by a specific field.--per-page <N>: Number of results per page (default 25, max 100).--page <N>: Specify the page number to retrieve.--sample <N>: Get a random sample of up to 10,000 results.--seed <N>: Seed for reproducible sampling.
download-pdf <work-id> <output-path> — Download PDF (requires API key).
Falls back to alternative pdf_url locations if primary fails. Whenever you
download a PDF, verify it is not empty or corrupted.
rate-limit — Check current rate limit status (requires API key).
Search Tips
- If
resolve returns no matches, try alternate spellings or abbreviations.
- If
--search returns 0 results, try broader terms (max 3 retries).
- If
resolve returns multiple candidates, present them to the user with
display_name and hint for manual selection.
Entity References
Consult references/ for valid filter, sort, and group-by fields per entity:
Common Workflows
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py resolve authors "Geoffrey Hinton"
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py filter works \
--filter "authorships.author.id:A5108093963" \
--sort "cited_by_count:desc" --per-page 10 > papers.json
cat papers.json | jq '[.results[] | {id, title: .display_name, year: .publication_year, citations: .cited_by_count}]'
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py get works "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2"
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py filter works \
--filter "doi:10.1234/a|10.1234/b|10.1234/c" --per-page 100 > results.json
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py resolve institutions "MIT"
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py filter works \
--filter "authorships.institutions.id:I63966007" \
--group-by "publication_year" > mit_by_year.json
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py filter works \
--filter "publication_year:2023,is_oa:true" \
--sample 100 --seed 42 > results.json
Error Handling
| Code | Meaning | Action |
|---|
| 401 | Unauthorized | Help user add API key to .env (see prereqs) |
| 403 | Plan upgrade needed | Inform user; see https://openalex.org/pricing |
| 404 | Not found | Verify ID; try resolve first |
| 429 | Rate limited | Wait and retry; suggest adding API key to .env |
Known premium-only filters: from_updated_date, to_updated_date.
Never fabricate results on empty responses — report accurately and suggest
alternate search terms.
