Verbatim

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for Verbatim — a platform of specialized document collections that returns verbatim, cited answers. ACL Anthology is the default collection; pass collection_ids=[...] to scope to a different collection or query multiple.

Features

• Search papers by keywords, authors, venues, and years
• Ask research questions and get answers with verbatim citations
• Get paper metadata and full content
• Export citations in BibTeX format
• Browse collections, authors, venues, and years
• Collection-aware — all tools accept an optional collection_ids list (default ["anthology"])

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Quick Start

Step 1: Get an API Key

1. Go to verbatim.krlabs.eu
2. Sign up / Log in
3. Navigate to API Keys
4. Create a new API key and copy it

Step 2: Set up the MCP server

Choose the setup that matches your environment:

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Setup for Claude Code (CLI)

Option A: Using uvx (no install needed, requires uv)

claude mcp add verbatim --transport stdio \
  -e VERBATIM_API_KEY=vb_your_key_here \
  -- uvx verbatim-mcp

Option B: Using pip (works everywhere)

pip install verbatim-mcp

claude mcp add verbatim --transport stdio \
  -e VERBATIM_API_KEY=vb_your_key_here \
  -- verbatim-mcp

Option C: Config file

Add to ~/.claude.json or your project's .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "verbatim": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "verbatim-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "VERBATIM_API_KEY": "vb_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then restart Claude Code or run /mcp to verify.

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Setup for Claude Desktop App

Edit your Claude Desktop config file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "verbatim": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["verbatim-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VERBATIM_API_KEY": "vb_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. You should see "verbatim" in the tools menu (hammer icon).

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Setup for OpenAI Codex

Option A: Via CLI

codex mcp add verbatim \
  -e VERBATIM_API_KEY=vb_your_key_here \
  -- uvx verbatim-mcp

Option B: Via config file

Edit ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.verbatim]
command = "uvx"
args = ["verbatim-mcp"]

[mcp_servers.verbatim.env]
VERBATIM_API_KEY = "vb_your_key_here"

Then restart Codex or run /mcp to verify.

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Setup for Cursor / VS Code with Continue

For Cursor or Continue.dev extension, add to your config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "verbatim": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["verbatim-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VERBATIM_API_KEY": "vb_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

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Verify It's Working

In Claude Code, run:

/mcp

You should see verbatim listed with its tools.

Try asking Claude:

"Use verbatim to search for papers about attention mechanisms"

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Available Tools

Every collection-aware tool accepts an optional collection_ids: list[str] parameter (default ["anthology"]). verbatim_transform is collection-agnostic — you supply the context.

Tool	Description
list_collections	List collections available to your API key
get_collection	Get metadata for a single collection
query_rag	Ask a research question, get an answer with citations
verbatim_transform	Turn any question + context into a verbatim cited answer (no collection)
search_papers	Search papers by keywords and filters. Pass include_chunks=true to also get the matched chunks per paper (no LLM, no quota)
get_paper	Get metadata for a specific paper
get_paper_content	Get full text of a paper
get_citation	Get BibTeX citation
list_authors	Search authors by name
list_venues	Browse publication venues
list_booktitles	Browse proceedings/booktitles
list_years	List available publication years

Example Prompts

Once configured, try these with Claude:

• "Search for papers about transformer efficiency from 2023"
• "What does the research say about attention mechanisms?"
• "Find papers by Ashish Vaswani"
• "Get the BibTeX citation for that paper"
• "List the top venues in the corpus"

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Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
VERBATIM_API_KEY	Your API key (required)	-
VERBATIM_API_URL	API base URL	https://verbatim.krlabs.eu

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Troubleshooting

"Failed to reconnect to verbatim"

• If using uvx, make sure uv is installed: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
• Alternatively, use pip instead: pip install verbatim-mcp and replace uvx verbatim-mcp with just verbatim-mcp in your config

"VERBATIM_API_KEY environment variable is required"

• Make sure you added the -e flag or env block with your API key

Server not showing in /mcp

• Restart Claude Code: claude (exit and reopen)
• Check config syntax: claude mcp list

"API error (401): Unauthorized"

• Your API key is invalid or expired
• Generate a new one at verbatim.krlabs.eu/api-keys

"API error (429): Rate limit"

• You've exceeded your query limit
• Check usage at verbatim.krlabs.eu/api-keys

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Compatibility

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is supported by:

• Claude Code (CLI) - ~/.claude.json
• Claude Desktop App - claude_desktop_config.json
• OpenAI Codex - ~/.codex/config.toml
• Cursor - built-in MCP support
• Continue.dev - VS Code/JetBrains extension

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License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Links

• Verbatim - The RAG service
• MCP Documentation - Learn about MCP
• Claude Code - Claude's coding assistant