Quickstart

Python API

Basic Search

from openalex_local import search, get, count, info

# Check database status
db = info()
print(f"Works: {db['work_count']:,}")

# Full-text search
results = search("machine learning", limit=10)
print(f"Found {results.total:,} matches in {results.elapsed_ms:.1f}ms")

for work in results:
    print(f"- {work.title} ({work.year})")

Get by ID or DOI

# By OpenAlex ID
work = get("W2741809807")

# By DOI
work = get("10.1038/nature12373")

if work:
    print(f"Title: {work.title}")
    print(f"Authors: {', '.join(work.authors)}")
    print(f"Abstract: {work.abstract[:200]}...")
    print(f"Concepts: {[c['name'] for c in work.concepts]}")

Work Attributes

The Work object has these attributes:

openalex_id - OpenAlex ID (e.g., W2741809807)
doi - Digital Object Identifier
title - Work title
abstract - Abstract text
authors - List of author names
year - Publication year
source - Journal/venue name
cited_by_count - Number of citations
concepts - OpenAlex concepts with scores
topics - OpenAlex topics
is_oa - Open access status
oa_url - Open access URL

Configuration

from openalex_local import configure, configure_http, get_mode

# Configure database path
configure("/path/to/openalex.db")

# Configure HTTP mode
configure_http("http://localhost:31292")

# Check current mode
print(get_mode())  # "db" or "http"

CLI Usage

# Search
openalex-local search "CRISPR genome editing" -n 5

# Get by ID
openalex-local search-by-doi W2741809807
openalex-local search-by-doi 10.1038/nature12373

# Show abstracts
openalex-local search "neural networks" -a

# JSON output
openalex-local search "machine learning" --json

# Status
openalex-local status

MCP Integration

For Claude Desktop or other MCP clients:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openalex-local": {
      "command": "openalex-local",
      "args": ["mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "OPENALEX_LOCAL_DB": "/path/to/openalex.db"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available MCP tools:

search - Full-text search
search_by_id - Get work by ID or DOI
status - Database statistics
enrich_ids - Batch lookup