@pipeworx/unpaywall

Connect: https://gateway.pipeworx.io/unpaywall/mcp · Install: one-click buttons

Tools: 1

Unpaywall MCP — open-access paper lookup, no API key (polite-pool email).

Tools

• get_oa(doi) — OA status + best free legal copy for a DOI, including author names (z_authors → raw_author_name).

Unpaywall also documents a title-search endpoint (/v2/search) — it is NOT exposed here. As of 2026-09-07 it 500s on every query against the live API, regardless of query text, is_oa, page, or a trailing slash on the path. Unpaywall’s help docs (redirected from support.unpaywall.org into OpenAlex’s help center as part of the 2025/2026 “Walden” rebuild) still describe the URL shape, so it is not formally retired — but it is non-functional in production with no fix timeline, and a tool that always errors costs every caller a wasted call to discover that. Removed 2026-09-07 (fleet #1328).

Auth

Unpaywall requires a contact email as a polite-pool identifier.

• Platform email: gateway env PLATFORM_UNPAYWALL_EMAIL (injected as _email).
• BYO: ?_email=you@example.com on the gateway URL.

Data source

https://api.unpaywall.org/v2/ — public, email-identified.

Tools

• get_oa — Given a DOI, fetch open-access status and the best free legal copy if one exists. Returns is_oa, oa_status (gold | green | hybrid | bronze | closed), best location (URL, host type, license), and journ