Build and query a local vector database + GraphRAG over your entire reference library (Zotero or a PDF folder) for literature review.
$ npx skills add joshzyj/open-scholar-skill --skill scholar-rag -a claude-codeProject install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
$ gh skill install joshzyj/open-scholar-skill scholar-rag --agent claude-codeProject scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/scholar-rag .claude/skills/scholar-rag && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.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/
Install the "scholar-rag" agent skill from https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill/tree/main/.claude/skills/scholar-rag into .claude/skills/scholar-rag/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "scholar-rag", then confirm the skill loads.Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$skill-installer install https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill/tree/main/.claude/skills/scholar-ragType this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.
$ npx skills add joshzyj/open-scholar-skill --skill scholar-rag -a codexProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
$ gh skill install joshzyj/open-scholar-skill scholar-rag --agent codexProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/scholar-rag .agents/skills/scholar-rag && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.
Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/
Install the "scholar-rag" agent skill from https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill/tree/main/.claude/skills/scholar-rag into .agents/skills/scholar-rag/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "scholar-rag", then confirm the skill loads.Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add joshzyj/open-scholar-skill --skill scholar-rag -a cursorProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
$ gh skill install joshzyj/open-scholar-skill scholar-rag --agent cursorProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/scholar-rag .cursor/skills/scholar-rag && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.
Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/
Install the "scholar-rag" agent skill from https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill/tree/main/.claude/skills/scholar-rag into .cursor/skills/scholar-rag/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "scholar-rag", then confirm the skill loads.Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gemini skills install https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill.git --path .claude/skills/scholar-rag--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.
$ npx skills add joshzyj/open-scholar-skill --skill scholar-rag -a gemini-cliProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
$ gh skill install joshzyj/open-scholar-skill scholar-rag --agent gemini-cliProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/scholar-rag .gemini/skills/scholar-rag && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.
Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "scholar-rag" agent skill from https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill/tree/main/.claude/skills/scholar-rag into .gemini/skills/scholar-rag/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "scholar-rag", then confirm the skill loads.Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gh skill install joshzyj/open-scholar-skill scholar-ragInstalls for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ npx skills add joshzyj/open-scholar-skill --skill scholar-rag -a github-copilotProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/scholar-rag .github/skills/scholar-rag && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.
GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "scholar-rag" agent skill from https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill/tree/main/.claude/skills/scholar-rag into .github/skills/scholar-rag/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "scholar-rag", then confirm the skill loads.GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add joshzyj/open-scholar-skill --skill scholar-rag -a opencodeOpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.
$ gh skill install joshzyj/open-scholar-skill scholar-rag --agent opencodeProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/scholar-rag .opencode/skills/scholar-rag && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.
OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "scholar-rag" agent skill from https://github.com/joshzyj/open-scholar-skill/tree/main/.claude/skills/scholar-rag into .opencode/skills/scholar-rag/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "scholar-rag", then confirm the skill loads.OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
scholar-ragBuild and query a local vector database + GraphRAG over your entire reference library (Zotero or a PDF folder) for literature review.
Scholar RAG is an agent skill from joshzyj/open-scholar-skill. Build and query a local vector database + GraphRAG over your entire reference library (Zotero or a PDF folder) for literature review. Downloads/locates full-text PDFs, extracts text (pdftotext/PyMuPDF/vision-OCR), chunks and embeds with bge-m3 into LanceDB, and layers a local-LLM GraphRAG (entity/relation extraction + Leiden communities + community summaries) seeded from the scholar-knowledge graph. Adds a bibliographic layer from OpenAlex (direct citations + bibliographic coupling + co-citation + paper-level…
Its SKILL.md is about 7.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 23 other files, including reference files and assets (for example `assets/_lib.sh`, `assets/build-all.sh` and `assets/chunk_embed.py`).
It sits in Research & Science, covering Knowledge graphs, Citation management and Retrieval-augmented generation. It works with Model Context Protocol, Ollama and Zotero. The repository describes itself as: Open scholar skill, a claude code plugin, for academic research.
4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.
Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6e5ac8e. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.
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.
Ships script files (Python and Shell, from the files we listed), which the agent can run.
Shell commands in SKILL.md call:
bashpython3brewclaudeFrom the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
No URLs in SKILL.md.
From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.
Scholar RAG loads about 7.4k tokens when it runs, and up to ~12k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 231 tokens; SKILL.md has 3,060 words of instructions outside code blocks.
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.
The automated check noted patterns worth knowing about, such as sudo or a known installer.
## Configuration (`.env` or environment)These are read from `$SCHOLAR_SKILL_DIR/.env` and `~/.claude/.env` by `_lib.sh`.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.
Its licence (Custom licence) doesn't allow us to republish the file, so here is its outline and opening line. It has 3,060 words (~7,411 tokens).
“You turn a scholar's whole reference library into a searchable, cited knowledge base. This skill ships a real, self-contained execution engine in assets/ (a Python package + a venv provisioner + a resumable build wrapper + an MCP server) —…”
SKILL.md and 22 other files (references, assets) in .claude/skills/scholar-rag of joshzyj/open-scholar-skill.
Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6e5ac8e
Scholar RAG 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.
| Skill | Stars | Used in | Tokens | Auto-check | Licence | Repo updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scholar RAG this skilljoshzyj/open-scholar-skill | 168 | — | ~7.4k | Automated safety check: Notes | Custom licence | |
| Literature Review Toolsbrycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills | 4.5k | — | ~2.5k | Automated safety check: Notes | Custom licence | |
| Aminer MCP ResearchDrchronx/ai-agent-research-starter-kit | 137 | — | ~1.1k | Automated safety check: Pass | Custom licence | |
| Annotate Paper54yyyu/zotero-mcp | 5.3k | — | ~1.5k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| NSFC Literature Review WriterHuiyuLi-2000/Chinese-Grant-Writer-Skills | 434 | 1 repos | ~1.4k | Automated safety check: Notes | MIT | |
| Arxiv MCP Serverblazickjp/arxiv-mcp-server | 3.2k | — | ~353 | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 |
brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills
Recommend AND run open-source AI tools, agents, Claude Code / Codex skills, and MCP servers for any stage of a literature review — searching, reading, extracting, synthesizing, screening…
Drchronx/ai-agent-research-starter-kit
Use AMiner MCP for academic knowledge graph tasks: scholar search, author profile lookup, institution or team analysis, paper and patent discovery, academic influence checks, and research trend…
54yyyu/zotero-mcp
Read the open paper and write study annotations into its PDF with zotero-cli - a context box on the title, a four-part summary on the abstract, role-coded abstract highlights, one box per figure…
HuiyuLi-2000/Chinese-Grant-Writer-Skills
Writes the research-status literature review and critique section of an NSFC grant proposal, backed by a bundled multi-source literature search.
blazickjp/arxiv-mcp-server
A skill your agent uses when finding, comparing, reading, or monitoring arXiv papers, including requests for abstracts, citation graphs, original LaTeX, section-level technical details, or…
fakerqwq/social-science-paper-writing-skill
Helps draft, diagnose, review and revise social science papers, from topic and research question to literature review, citation risks and pre-submission checks.
joshzyj/open-scholar-skill
Turn unstructured text into validated, structured variables at corpus scale with LLMs: codebook design, dev/gold-set construction, DSPy prompt optimization, a hard reliability gate (Cohen κ ≥ 0.70)…
joshzyj/open-scholar-skill
Stable, deterministic social-science research-paper pipeline from idea or data to verified manuscript, citations, replication package, and final md/docx/tex/pdf outputs.
joshzyj/open-scholar-skill
Comprehensive causal inference toolkit for social science research.
joshzyj/open-scholar-skill
Comprehensive open data directory (100+ datasets across 14 categories) with auto-fetch capability, plus data collection instrument design, variable dictionaries, data management, IRB materials, and…
joshzyj/open-scholar-skill
Conduct exploratory data analysis (EDA) before hypothesis testing.
joshzyj/open-scholar-skill
Explore broad social science ideas and convert them into formal, researchable questions.
Works with
Build and query a local vector database + GraphRAG over your entire reference library (Zotero or a PDF folder) for literature review. Scholar RAG is an agent skill from joshzyj/open-scholar-skill. Build and query a local vector database + GraphRAG over your entire reference library (Zotero or a PDF folder) for literature review.
Scholar RAG fits situations like: build a searchable literature corpus; ground lit-review claims in cited passages; find related papers.
Run `npx skills add joshzyj/open-scholar-skill --skill scholar-rag -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/scholar-rag in joshzyj/open-scholar-skill) into .claude/skills/scholar-rag in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
Run `npx skills add joshzyj/open-scholar-skill --skill scholar-rag -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/scholar-rag in joshzyj/open-scholar-skill) into .agents/skills/scholar-rag in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.
Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add joshzyj/open-scholar-skill --skill scholar-rag -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/scholar-rag, .gemini/skills/scholar-rag, .github/skills/scholar-rag and .opencode/skills/scholar-rag in your project.
Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Scholar RAG needs Python and a shell for the scripts in its folder and the command-line tools its instructions call (bash, python3, brew and claude). Our summary lists: Python 3; A Bash shell.
SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.
Our automated static check of SKILL.md found notes only (mentions a .env file), nothing it rates as a warning. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.
Scholar RAG has a licence file (the repository's licence) that doesn't match a standard licence. Read it on GitHub before reusing the skill.
About 7.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 30k 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 4.3k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.
Skills that share tags, products or a category with Scholar RAG: Literature Review Tools (brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills, 4.5k stars), Aminer MCP Research (Drchronx/ai-agent-research-starter-kit, 137 stars), Annotate Paper (54yyyu/zotero-mcp, 5.3k stars) and NSFC Literature Review Writer (HuiyuLi-2000/Chinese-Grant-Writer-Skills, 434 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.
joshzyj (a GitHub user) maintains it in joshzyj/open-scholar-skill, which has 168 GitHub stars. The repository holds 30 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 18, 2026.
Source: joshzyj/open-scholar-skill on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.
