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Agent skill

Openalex

by brycewang-stanford in brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills

A skill your agent uses when the user asks about academic literature, research papers, scholarly works, authors, citations, institutions, journals, or any academic metadata.

Custom licenceAuto-check passedResearch & Science

Install Openalex

skills CLI
$ npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills --skill openalex -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills openalex --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/59-shiquda-openalex-skill/openalex .claude/skills/openalex && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
openalex
GitHub stars
4.5k
Token cost
~3k tokens
SKILL.md length
816 words
Files
3 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
383
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Custom licence

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when the user asks about academic literature, research papers, scholarly works, authors, citations, institutions, journals, or any academic metadata.

  • Works in 6 steps: primary_location.pdf_url → best_oa_location.pdf_url → open_access.oa_url → …
  • The user asks about academic literature
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use, Initial Setup, Prerequisites and Core Commands, plus 6 more sections
  • Calls npm; reaches doi.org and orcid.org; needs OPENALEX_API_KEY

What it does

Openalex is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills. Use when the user asks about academic literature, research papers, scholarly works, authors, citations, institutions, journals, or any academic metadata. Trigger when users want to search for papers, find author profiles, track citations, discover related works, or explore academic topics. Also use when users mention DOIs, ORCIDs, h-index, publication venues, or research metrics.

Its SKILL.md is about 3k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 3 other files, including reference files (for example `references/output-formats.md` and `references/setup.md`).

It sits in Research & Science, covering Academic paper search, Citation management and Literature review. The repository describes itself as: 🔬 A curated collection of 23,000+ agent skills for empirical research across 8 social science disciplines. | 精选 23,000+ AI Agent 技能库，覆盖8大社会科学学科的实证研究。CoPaper.AI…

When your agent uses it

  • The user asks about academic literature
  • Research papers
  • Scholarly works
  • Any academic metadata

Example prompts

  • “/openalex”

Requirements

  • Node.js
  • A credential in OPENALEX_API_KEY

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. primary_location.pdf_url
  2. best_oa_location.pdf_url
  3. open_access.oa_url
  4. primary_location.landing_page_url
  5. best_oa_location.landing_page_url
  6. Any locations[].pdf_url or locations[].landing_page_url

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 9fa87d8. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • npm

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

    • doi.org
    • orcid.org
    • api.openalex.org

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names these keys or tokens, usually read from environment variables:

    • OPENALEX_API_KEY

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Openalex loads about 3k tokens when it runs, and up to ~5k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 98 tokens; SKILL.md has 816 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~98
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~3k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~5k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

Its licence (Custom licence) doesn't allow us to republish the file, so here is its outline and opening line. It has 816 words (~2,979 tokens).

“Use the openalex CLI to retrieve academic metadata from the OpenAlex API.”

— opening of SKILL.md by brycewang-stanford, Custom licence
name
openalex

Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub

Files

SKILL.md and 2 other files (references) in skills/59-shiquda-openalex-skill/openalex of brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/output-formats.md
  • references/setup.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 9fa87d8

Compare with similar skills

Openalex next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Openalex compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Openalex this skillbrycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills4.5k—~3kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Literature Reviewneflibata-feng/MyArxiv-Agent12620 repos~5.9kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Preprint Search on bioRxivLigphiDonk/Oh-my--paper73812 repos~3.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Systematic Literature Review Builderbytedance/deer-flow84k2 repos~4.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Paper Research on arXivXiaomiMiMo/MiMo-Code14k—~1.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Literature Review AgentAr9av/PaperOrchestra6771 repos~5.2kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence

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Categories

Questions about Openalex

What does Openalex do?

A skill your agent uses when the user asks about academic literature, research papers, scholarly works, authors, citations, institutions, journals, or any academic metadata. Openalex is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills. Use when the user asks about academic literature, research papers, scholarly works, authors, citations, institutions, journals, or any academic metadata.

When should I use Openalex?

Openalex fits situations like: the user asks about academic literature; research papers; scholarly works; any academic metadata.

How do I install Openalex in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills --skill openalex -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/59-shiquda-openalex-skill/openalex in brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills) into .claude/skills/openalex in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Openalex in Codex?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills --skill openalex -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/59-shiquda-openalex-skill/openalex in brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills) into .agents/skills/openalex in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Openalex in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills --skill openalex -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/openalex, .gemini/skills/openalex, .github/skills/openalex and .opencode/skills/openalex in your project.

What does Openalex need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Openalex needs the command-line tools its instructions call (npm) and credentials named OPENALEX_API_KEY. Our summary lists: Node.js; A credential in OPENALEX_API_KEY.

Does Openalex access the network?

SKILL.md names 3 domains. In commands or code: doi.org, orcid.org and api.openalex.org; the agent is likely to contact these when it follows the instructions. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Openalex safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Openalex use?

Openalex has a licence file (the repository's licence) that doesn't match a standard licence. Read it on GitHub before reusing the skill.

How many tokens does Openalex use?

About 3k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 12k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 2k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Openalex?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Openalex: Literature Review (neflibata-feng/MyArxiv-Agent, 126 stars), Preprint Search on bioRxiv (LigphiDonk/Oh-my--paper, 738 stars), Systematic Literature Review Builder (bytedance/deer-flow, 84k stars) and Paper Research on arXiv (XiaomiMiMo/MiMo-Code, 14k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Openalex?

brycewang-stanford (a GitHub user) maintains it in brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills, which has 4,542 GitHub stars. The repository holds 383 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 5, 2026.

Source: brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.