AI Assistant Integration with MCP

OneCite provides full support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling AI assistants to directly use its citation management capabilities.

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard for connecting AI assistants with external tools and data sources. This allows AI assistants like Claude to access OneCite’s functionality seamlessly.

Installation and Setup

1. Install OneCite

pip install onecite

2. Test the MCP Server

onecite-mcp

You should see output confirming the MCP server is running.

Configuring Claude Desktop

To use OneCite with Claude Desktop:

  1. Open claude_desktop_config.json (usually located at ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json)

  2. Add OneCite to the MCP servers configuration:

    {
  "mcpServers": {
    "onecite": {
      "command": "onecite-mcp"
    }
  }
}

  3. Restart Claude Desktop

  4. Start a new conversation and OneCite will be available

Configuring Cursor Editor

For Cursor editor integration:

  1. Open .cursor/settings.json (or create it if it doesn’t exist)

  2. Add OneCite configuration:

    {
  "mcpServers": {
    "onecite": {
      "command": "onecite-mcp"
    }
  }
}

  3. Restart Cursor

  4. OneCite will now be available in the MCP tools

Available Functions

The OneCite MCP server provides the following functions:

cite

Generate a single citation in various formats.

Example Usage:

  • “Generate an APA citation for DOI: 10.1038/nature14539”

  • “Create a BibTeX entry for the paper titled ‘Attention is All You Need’”

  • “Get a citation for arXiv:2103.00020 in MLA format”

Parameters:

  • source - The paper identifier (DOI, title, arXiv ID, etc.)

  • style - Output format: “bibtex”, “apa”, or “mla” (default: “bibtex”)

batch_cite

Process multiple references at once.

Example Usage:

  • “Batch process these references in BibTeX format: [list of papers]”

  • “Convert this list of authors and years to APA citations”

  • “Process my references.txt file and give me BibTeX output”

Parameters:

  • sources - List of paper identifiers or references

  • style - Output format: “bibtex”, “apa”, or “mla” (default: “bibtex”)

Example Conversations

Example 1: Simple Citation Generation

User: “Can you generate a citation for the Deep Learning paper by LeCun, Bengio, and Hinton?”

Claude: “I’ll generate a citation for that paper.”

Uses the cite function to retrieve and format the citation

Output:

@article{LeCun2015Deep,
  doi = "10.1038/nature14539",
  title = "Deep Learning",
  author = "LeCun, Yann and Bengio, Yoshua and Hinton, Geoffrey",
  journal = "Nature",
  year = 2015,
  volume = 521,
  number = 7553,
  pages = "436-444",
  publisher = "Springer Science and Business Media LLC"
}

Example 2: Batch Processing

User: “I have these papers to cite. Can you get BibTeX for all of them? - 10.1038/nature14539 - 1706.03762 (arXiv) - Deep Learning textbook by Goodfellow, Bengio, and Courville”

Claude: “I’ll process all three of those for you in BibTeX format.”

Uses batch_cite function

Output:

[BibTeX entries for all three references]

Example 3: Format Conversion

User: “I need to convert my paper’s bibliography to APA format. Here are the references…”

Claude: “I’ll convert those to APA format for you.”

Uses batch_cite with format=”apa”

Output:

LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436-444.
[Additional APA citations...]

Troubleshooting

MCP Server Not Starting

If you see an error when running onecite-mcp, try:

# Check if OneCite is installed
pip install --upgrade onecite

# Test the installation
onecite --version

Claude Desktop Not Recognizing OneCite

  1. Check that the config file is in the correct location

  2. Verify the JSON syntax is valid (use a JSON validator)

  3. Restart Claude Desktop completely

  4. Check that OneCite MCP server is responding:

    onecite-mcp --test

Cursor Not Finding OneCite Functions

  1. Ensure Cursor is restarted after updating .cursor/settings.json

  2. Verify the command path is correct

  3. Try running onecite-mcp manually to check for errors

Advanced Configuration

Custom Command Path

If OneCite is installed in a specific virtual environment, you can specify the full path:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "onecite": {
      "command": "/path/to/venv/bin/onecite-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Error Logging

To debug MCP issues, check the AI assistant’s debug logs or MCP server logs.

Best Practices

  1. Be Specific - Provide complete information (DOI, title, authors) for best results

  2. One at a Time - For complex citations, process one or two at a time

  3. Verify Results - Always check the output matches your needs

  4. Use Batch Processing - For multiple references, batch_cite is more efficient

  5. Format Consistency - Specify your desired format to avoid back-and-forth conversions

Integration with Workflows

With Claude/Cursor

  1. Discuss your research during conversation

  2. Ask Claude to generate citations as needed

  3. Copy the formatted bibliography into your paper

  4. Use for real-time citation help while writing

Workflow Example

User: "I'm writing about deep learning. Can you help me cite the foundational papers?"
Claude: "I'll help you cite the key deep learning papers. Let me get those for you."
[Claude uses batch_cite with deep learning papers]
User: "Great! Can I get those in APA format instead?"
Claude: "Of course, let me convert those to APA."
[Claude uses batch_cite with format="apa"]

Next Steps