paperclip

Paperclip Plugin for Claude

A Claude Code plugin marketplace that gives you access to Paperclip — an agent-first CLI for searching and reading 8M+ full-text biomedical papers from PubMed Central, bioRxiv, medRxiv, and arXiv.

The plugin automatically installs the Paperclip CLI and configures authentication, so you can start exploring scientific literature immediately without any manual setup.

Installation

From Claude Desktop (Cowork)

1. Open Customize > Personal plugins
2. Click + Create plugin > Add marketplace
3. Enter this repository URL: GXL-ai/paperclip-claude-plugin
4. Click Sync
5. Install the paperclip plugin from the marketplace
6. Enter your API key when prompted (get one at https://paperclip.gxl.ai/keys)

From Claude Code CLI

# Add the marketplace
claude plugin marketplace add GXL-ai/paperclip-claude-plugin

# Install the plugin
claude plugin install paperclip@paperclip-marketplace

For local development/testing

claude --plugin-dir ./plugins/paperclip

What it does

Once installed, Claude can:

• Search millions of biomedical papers by topic, author, journal, or DOI
• Read full-text papers with line-numbered content
• Analyze figures using vision capabilities
• Synthesize findings across multiple papers using map/reduce
• Extract data from supplementary materials (CSV, Excel)
• Cite sources with proper academic references and verifiable links

How it works

1. On install: The plugin prompts for your Paperclip API key and stores it securely in the system keychain.
2. On session start: A hook checks if the Paperclip CLI is installed at ~/.paperclip/ and downloads it if needed (requires Python 3.8+).
3. During use: Claude invokes the paperclip command (available on PATH via the plugin's bin/ directory) to search, read, and analyze papers.

Requirements

• Python 3.8 or later
• curl or wget (for downloading the CLI on first run)
• A Paperclip API key (get one here)

Repository structure

paperclip-claude-plugin/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── marketplace.json          # Marketplace catalog
├── plugins/
│   └── paperclip/                # The Paperclip plugin
│       ├── .claude-plugin/
│       │   └── plugin.json       # Plugin manifest
│       ├── skills/
│       │   └── paperclip/
│       │       └── SKILL.md      # Paperclip skill for Claude
│       ├── hooks/
│       │   └── hooks.json        # SessionStart hook for auto-install
│       ├── scripts/
│       │   └── install.sh        # Non-interactive CLI installer
│       └── bin/
│           └── paperclip         # CLI wrapper (added to PATH)
└── README.md

Example usage

Once the plugin is active, ask Claude things like:

• "Search for recent papers on CRISPR base editing delivery"
• "Find papers by Jennifer Doudna on gene editing"
• "Read the methods section of PMC10791696"
• "Compare the approaches used in the top 5 papers on mRNA vaccine delivery"

License

MIT