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How to connect OpenAlex to Claude Cowork

Connect Claude Cowork to OpenAlex MCP. Find recent papers on causal inference, list top authors in linguistics field, and more using natural language, with authentication handled for you.

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OpenAlex is an open catalog of scholarly works, authors, institutions, sources, topics, and research metadata. Use it to discover research and enrich apps with structured academic metadata.

14 Tools

Introduction

Cowork is Anthropic's AI agent for knowledge work. Think of it as Claude Code for everything else. It works autonomously with your computer, local files, and applications to accomplish complex tasks.

This guide walks you through the easiest and most secure way to connect your OpenAlex account to Cowork via Composio Connect, enabling it to find recent papers on causal inference, list top authors in linguistics field, get citation count for a DOI, and more such actions on your behalf without compromising your account security.

Also integrate OpenAlex with

ChatGPT WorkHermes

Connecting OpenAlex to Claude Cowork

1. Open Customize

In Claude Desktop, click Customize in the left sidebar, then select Connectors and click the + icon at the top.

Claude Desktop connectors screen with Add custom connector selected

2. Add the Composio MCP server

Click Add custom connector and paste in the Composio MCP server URL:

bash
https://connect.composio.dev/mcp
Add custom connector dialog with Composio MCP server URL

3. Authorize in your browser

Click Connect. You'll be redirected to a browser window where you can authorize Composio to continue.

Composio authorization screen for Claude Cowork

4. Connect your OpenAlex account

Back in Cowork, ask the agent to connect to OpenAlex or give it any OpenAlex-related task.

For example, ask Cowork to:

  • "Find recent papers on causal inference"
  • "List top authors in linguistics field"
  • "Get citation count for a DOI"

It will prompt you to authenticate and authorize access.

That's it. Composio's tools are now available in Cowork, and your OpenAlex account is ready to use.

What is Claude Cowork?

Claude Cowork is Anthropic's agent for general knowledge work. It can use your computer, files, and connected applications to complete longer-running tasks across your work tools.

With Composio Connect, Cowork can securely access apps like OpenAlex through MCP without you sharing account credentials directly with the agent.

What is the OpenAlex MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The OpenAlex MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your OpenAlex account. It provides structured and secure access so your agent can perform OpenAlex operations on your behalf.

TOOLS

Supported Tools

Every OpenAlex action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Add Collection Entities

Bulk-add one or more matching OpenAlex entity IDs to an owned collection without duplicating existing memberships.

Autocomplete Entities

Resolve a partial name or title to likely OpenAlex entity IDs before filtering or retrieving metadata.

Create Collection

Create a private, single-entity-type OpenAlex collection, optionally with an initial bounded set of entity IDs.

Delete Collection

Permanently delete exactly one owned private OpenAlex collection and all of its collection memberships.

Download Work Content

Download an OpenAlex-cached PDF or gzipped GROBID TEI file for a work.

Get Collection

Get metadata for one private OpenAlex collection owned by the connected user.

Get Metadata Entity

Retrieve one OpenAlex work, author, source, institution, topic, keyword, publisher, funder, award, taxonomy item, country, continent, or language by its supported identifier.

Get Rate Limit Status

Validate the connected OpenAlex API key and inspect daily budget, prepaid balance, reset timing, and current endpoint costs before expensive queries or downloads.

List Collection Entities

List one page of entity IDs in an owned private collection together with collection metadata and page totals.

List My Collections

List private OpenAlex collections owned by the connected API-key user, optionally finding collections that contain an entity.

Query Metadata Entities

Search, filter, sort, sample, select, or group one OpenAlex metadata resource other than works, including authors, venues, organizations, taxonomy, geography, awards, and enumerations.

Query Works

Search, filter, sort, sample, select, or group scholarly works.

Remove Collection Entities

Bulk-remove one or more entity memberships from an owned private OpenAlex collection without deleting the underlying OpenAlex entities.

Update Collection

Update a private collection's name or description, or change its entity type while the collection is empty.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build OpenAlex MCP Agent with another framework

ChatGPT Work logo

ChatGPT Work

Use OpenAlex MCP with ChatGPT Work

Hermes logo

Hermes

Use OpenAlex MCP with Hermes

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

With a standalone OpenAlex MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of OpenAlex tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from OpenAlex and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Yes, you can. Claude Cowork fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right OpenAlex tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which OpenAlex scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your OpenAlex data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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