openalex_describe_fields

MCP tool from Openalex MCP Server by cyanheads

List valid filter, groupby, and select field names for an entity type — call before building a query to avoid invalid-field errors.

How to use it

Project documentation lists openalex_describe_fields for the Openalex MCP Server MCP server. Add the server to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf and others), then check which tools your installed version makes available. Tool availability can depend on configuration and credentials. A server handshake does not verify this tool’s behavior. See the full listing for setup details.

Install Openalex MCP Server

$docker run -e OPENALEX_API_KEY=your-key -p 3010:3010 openalex-mcp-server

FULL OPENALEX MCP SERVER LISTING

Other tools in Openalex MCP Server (9)

cited_by

works the seed cites (its reference list)

cites

works that cite the seed (incoming citations)

display_name

is nullable — OpenAlex holds no title for paratext and other untitled records, which pass through instead of failing the whole page

group_by

returns the subset of the filter set OpenAlex can aggregate — raw date fields, .search operators, and from/to range modifiers are excluded

openalex_analyze_trends

Group-by aggregation for trend and distribution analysis.

openalex_get_citation_graph

Walk the citation graph one hop from a seed work: cites, citedby, or relatedto.

openalex_resolve_name

Resolve a name or an identifier (DOI, ORCID, ROR, PMID, PMCID, ISSN, OpenAlex ID) to an OpenAlex ID.

openalex_search_entities

Search, filter, sort, or retrieve by ID across all 8 entity types.

related_to

OpenAlex algorithmic "related works" (~8-30 typical, may be empty for less-cited seeds)