AlphaXiv Paper Lookup
Look up any arxiv paper via alphaxiv.org to get a structured AI-generated overview instead of parsing raw PDFs.
Reading arxiv papers means downloading PDFs, squinting at dense formatting, and spending 30 minutes just to figure out if a paper is relevant to your work. Most papers could be assessed in 2 minutes with the right summary.
Who it's for: graduate students doing literature reviews, ML researchers tracking new papers, postdocs screening submissions, research engineers evaluating techniques, academic advisors staying current
Example
"Summarize arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345 and tell me if it's relevant to my transformer efficiency research" → Structured overview with key contributions, methodology, results, limitations, and relevance assessment — no PDF download needed
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
# AlphaXiv Paper Lookup
Look up any arxiv paper on alphaxiv.org to get a structured AI-generated overview. This is faster and more reliable than trying to read a raw PDF.
## When to Use
- User shares an arxiv URL (e.g. `arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345`)
- User mentions a paper ID (e.g. `2401.12345`)
- User asks you to explain, summarize, or analyze a research paper
- User shares an alphaxiv URL (e.g. `alphaxiv.org/overview/2401.12345`)
## Workflow
### Step 1: Extract the paper ID
Parse the paper ID from whatever the user provides:
| Input | Paper ID |
| ------------------------------------------ | -------------- |
| `https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345` | `2401.12345` |
| `https://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.12345` | `2401.12345` |
| `https://alphaxiv.org/overview/2401.12345` | `2401.12345` |
| `2401.12345v2` | `2401.12345v2` |
| `2401.12345` | `2401.12345` |
### Step 2: Fetch the machine-readable report
```bash
curl -s "https://alphaxiv.org/overview/{PAPER_ID}.md"
```
This returns the intermediate machine-readable report — a structured, detailed analysis of the paper optimized for LLM consumption. One call, plain markdown, no JSON parsing.
If this returns 404, the report hasn't been generated for this paper yet.
### Step 3: If you need more detail, fetch the full paper text
If the report doesn't contain the specific information the user is asking about (e.g. a particular equation, table, or section), fetch the full paper text:
```bash
curl -s "https://alphaxiv.org/abs/{PAPER_ID}.md"
```
This returns the full extracted text of the paper as markdown. Only use this as a fallback — the report is usually sufficient.
If this returns 404, the full text hasn't been processed yet. As a last resort, direct the user to the PDF at `https://arxiv.org/pdf/{PAPER_ID}`.
## Error Handling
- **404 on Step 2**: Report not generated for this paper.
- **404 on Step 3**: Full text not yet extracted for this paper.
## Notes
- No authentication required — these are public endpoints.
What This Does
Lets Claude look up any arxiv paper through alphaxiv.org to get a structured, AI-generated overview — no PDF parsing needed. Just provide an arxiv URL or paper ID, and it fetches a detailed analysis optimized for LLM consumption. Falls back to full paper text extraction when deeper detail is needed.
Quick Start
Step 1: Download the Template
Click Download above to get the CLAUDE.md file.
Step 2: Place in Your Project
Drop the template into any project folder where you work with research papers:
research/
├── CLAUDE.md
└── notes/ # Your paper notes
Step 3: Start Working
claude
Say: "Explain this paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345"
Supported Input Formats
| Input | Extracted ID |
|---|---|
https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345 |
2401.12345 |
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.12345 |
2401.12345 |
https://alphaxiv.org/overview/2401.12345 |
2401.12345 |
2401.12345v2 |
2401.12345v2 |
2401.12345 |
2401.12345 |
How It Works
- Fetch the overview — calls
alphaxiv.org/overview/{ID}.mdfor a structured report - Fall back to full text — if the overview lacks specific details, fetches
alphaxiv.org/abs/{ID}.md - Last resort — directs to the raw PDF at
arxiv.org/pdf/{ID}
No API keys or authentication required — all endpoints are public.
Tips
- The structured overview is usually sufficient — only fetch full text for specific equations, tables, or sections
- Works with any arxiv paper ID format, including versioned IDs like
2401.12345v2 - If a report returns 404, the paper hasn't been processed by AlphaXiv yet
Example Prompts
"Explain this paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345"
"Summarize the key contributions of 2401.12345"
"What methods does this paper use? arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345"
"Compare the results in 2401.12345 with 2312.67890"
"What are the limitations discussed in this paper?"