Guide · Agent skill
How to use the AlphaXiv Paper Lookup agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
The alphaxiv skill lets an AI coding agent explain or summarize a single research paper. You give it an arXiv link, an AlphaXiv link or a bare arXiv ID, and it fetches a condensed overview from AlphaXiv, then falls back to deeper sources only when needed. This guide covers what the skill does, how to install it, how to trigger it, and what it needs to run.
AlphaXiv Paper Lookupwanshuiyin/Auto-claude-code-research-in-sleep · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download the ZIP. Get the alphaxiv skill ZIP from the skill page on this site.
- 2Unzip into a skills folder. Unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into .claude/skills/ inside a project.
- 3Or upload it in the Claude apps. In the Claude apps, open Settings, go to Capabilities, then Skills, and upload the ZIP.
- 4Check the requirements. Confirm curl is available in your shell and that the environment can reach alphaxiv.org and arxiv.org.
- 5Ask about a paper. Paste an arXiv link or ID and ask the agent to explain or summarize it.
- 6Refine with a tier if needed. If the overview is not enough, ask for more detail or add a depth directive such as depth: src.
What the alphaxiv skill makes the agent do
Agent skills are folders of instructions that an agent loads when a request matches them. This one is a quick single-paper reader. When you ask the agent to explain or summarize a paper, it runs a fixed sequence of lookups instead of searching the web on its own.
The agent tries three sources in order: the AlphaXiv overview (a structured, machine-oriented report), then the full paper body as markdown from AlphaXiv, and finally the paper's LaTeX source from arXiv. It stops at the first source that answers your question.
- Tier 1: AlphaXiv overview, the default and fastest source
- Tier 2: full AlphaXiv markdown, for methods and experimental detail
- Tier 3: arXiv LaTeX source, for equations, proofs and appendices
Install the alphaxiv skill
Download the ZIP from the skill page on this site and unzip it. You can install it in one of two places. For a personal setup, unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/. For a single project, unzip it into the project's .claude/skills/ folder.
If you use the Claude apps instead of a local install, open Settings, go to Capabilities, then Skills, and upload the ZIP there.
- Personal: ~/.claude/skills/
- Project only: .claude/skills/ inside your project folder
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
Trigger the skill with natural requests
You do not need to type a command. The skill is meant to load when your request matches its description. Requests such as "explain this paper" or "summarize paper" work, and so does pasting an arXiv or AlphaXiv URL, or giving a bare arXiv ID.
The skill also accepts a slash form with the paper ID as the argument, and a few optional directives that force a specific tier.
- "Explain this paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345"
- "Summarize paper 2401.12345 and tell me the main contribution"
- "What does the method section of 2401.12345 say about training?"
- Overrides: append "- depth: overview", "- depth: abs" or "- depth: src" to force a tier
/alphaxiv 2401.12345Accepted input formats
The skill extracts the paper ID from several link styles. Version suffixes such as v2 are removed before lookups, so the newest-version link and the bare ID behave the same way.
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345 or with a version such as v2
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.12345
- https://alphaxiv.org/overview/2401.12345 or https://www.alphaxiv.org/overview/2401.12345
- https://alphaxiv.org/abs/2401.12345 or https://www.alphaxiv.org/abs/2401.12345
- A bare ID such as 2401.12345 or 2401.12345v2
What you need before you start
The skill runs shell commands, so the agent environment needs curl available in the shell. It also needs network access to alphaxiv.org and arxiv.org. Without both, the lookups cannot complete.
The ARIS research-wiki tools are optional. If you keep a local research-wiki folder and want results saved there, the skill can call research_wiki.py to ingest the paper. If the script is missing, the summary is still delivered and the wiki step is skipped.
- curl available in the shell
- Network access to alphaxiv.org and arxiv.org
- Optional: research_wiki.py from the ARIS tools, for research-wiki ingest
Safety notes: scripts and network access
This skill runs scripts and uses the network. Its tool permissions allow shell commands, file reads and writes, and globbing. Source archives are downloaded to a temporary directory under /tmp and are not meant to persist. The skill reads structured markdown and LaTeX source, not raw PDFs.
Review the SKILL.md file before installing if you work with sensitive material. The skill sends paper IDs to AlphaXiv and arXiv, and it can write to a research-wiki folder when that folder exists in your project.
- Runs scripts: yes, via shell commands
- Uses network: yes, to alphaxiv.org and arxiv.org
- Temporary source files go under /tmp
- Wiki ingest only runs if a research-wiki/ folder exists
Tips for better results
Ask a specific question. A narrow question lets the agent stop at the overview tier, which is faster. If the answer depends on an equation or appendix, say so, so the agent goes straight to the LaTeX source.
For topic searches, use a different tool. The skill itself says it is not for broad literature search. Use /research-lit or /arxiv for discovery, and use this skill once you have a specific paper.
- Name the section or detail you need, such as the loss function or the ablation table
- Use depth: src when the question concerns equations, proofs or appendices
- Use depth: abs when the overview is too shallow
- For PDF content, the skill suggests /arxiv with download instead
What people use it for
- Get a quick explanation of a paper you were sent before deciding whether to read it in full
- Ask what a specific method or result in one paper actually claims
- Read the LaTeX source of a paper to check an equation or an appendix table
- Students pasting an arXiv link and asking for the main points in plain language
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the alphaxiv agent skill?
Download the ZIP from the skill page on this site and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. In the Claude apps, you can instead upload the ZIP under Settings, then Capabilities, then Skills.
What does the alphaxiv skill require?
It needs curl available in the shell and network access to alphaxiv.org and arxiv.org. The research_wiki.py tools are optional and only used if you want results added to a local research-wiki folder.
Is the alphaxiv skill free?
This page does not state pricing or licence terms beyond the listed licence, which is MIT. Check the source repository's licence file for details on use and redistribution.
Does alphaxiv work for broad literature searches?
No. The skill is built for one paper at a time. For topic discovery or surveys, the skill itself points to /research-lit or /arxiv.
Can I trust the summaries for citations or venue details?
Not for those. The skill relies on third-party summaries that may be inaccurate, and it does not provide verified citation metadata or venue information. Check the original paper for those details.
Why is it slow or using lots of context on some papers?
AlphaXiv may not have processed every paper. In that case the skill falls back to downloading and reading the raw LaTeX source, which is slower and uses more of the agent's context.
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Our verdict
Use the alphaxiv skill if you want a fast, focused explanation of one arXiv paper and you are comfortable with an agent making network requests. Pick a search-oriented skill such as /research-lit or /arxiv if you need to find papers, verified metadata or venue information.
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