NBER-CLI¶

NBER-CLI is a command-line toolkit for searching NBER working papers, reading paper metadata, downloading PDFs, and exposing those workflows to AI agents through MCP.

What It Does¶

NBER-CLI focuses on the common research loop around NBER working papers:

Search for papers by keyword, author, title, abstract, or paper number.
Inspect a paper's title, authors, date, abstract, URL, and related metadata.
Follow new working papers through NBER's RSS feed and a local cache.
Download a PDF by paper ID.
Run batch downloads into a target directory.
Serve paper search, lookup, and download operations as MCP tools.

Quick Start¶

Run without installing:

uvx nber-cli search "Labor Economic"
uvx nber-cli info w25000
uvx nber-cli feed fetch --max-items 5
uvx nber-cli download w34567

Install as a reusable command:

uv tool install nber-cli
nber-cli search "Labor Economic"
nber-cli info w25000
nber-cli feed fetch --max-items 5
nber-cli download w34567

MCP in One Minute¶

Start the stdio MCP server:

uvx nber-cli mcp-server

Add it to an MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nber-cli-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["nber-cli", "mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Documentation Map¶

Getting Started: install options and first commands.
Agent Guides: plugin, MCP, and skill setup for Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, and other agents.
CLI Reference: command syntax, options, output formats, and examples.
MCP Server: agent configuration, transports, and available tools.
Python API: async functions and data models.
Configuration: runtime defaults and operational behavior.
Development: local setup, tests, docs, CI, and release workflow.
Contributing: contribution standards and review expectations.
Changelog: notable project changes.

Project Status¶

The current public command model is nber-cli v0.3.0. The CLI is intentionally small and script-friendly: text output is optimized for human reading, and --format json is available where structured output matters.