ADS BibTeX Skill

Retrieve verified BibTeX entries from NASA ADS. Never invent bibcodes or
BibTeX fields. Every entry must come from a live ADS API response.

This skill uses the ads MCP server, which exposes two tools: ads_search
and ads_bibtex. These run locally on the user's machine and have full network
access to the ADS API.

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Workflow

Step 1 — Build the ADS query

Translate the user's intent into ADS query syntax. Key field operators:

Goal	Query syntax
Author	author:"Last, F"
First author only	author:"^Last, F"
Title keyword	title:"keyword"
Year range	year:2020-2024
Journal	bibstem:ApJ or bibstem:MNRAS
Object	object:"Beta Pic b"
Free-text abstract	abs:"phase curve brown dwarf"
Bibcode exact	bibcode:2023ApJ...945L...5Z
Restrict to astronomy	database:astronomy
Refereed only	property:refereed

Combine operators with AND, OR. Default sort is date desc.

Common bibstems: ApJ, ApJL, ApJS, AJ, MNRAS, A&A, Icar, NatAs, Sci, Natur, arXiv.

Step 2 — Search ADS

Call the ads_search tool:

ads_search(query="author:\"^Last, First\" keyword", max_results=20)

Returns a JSON list with fields: bibcode, author, year, title, journal.

Display results as a compact numbered list:

1. Last et al. (YEAR) – Title [journal]
2. ...

Do not guess which result is correct. For autonomous tasks, apply these
heuristics in order:

• Exact title match
• First-author + year match
• Highest relevance in the first 5 results

If ambiguous, list the top candidates and ask the user to select.

Filtering tip: Common author names return many false positives. Add
database:astronomy property:refereed and restrict to major bibstems
(ApJ OR AJ OR MNRAS OR A&A OR NatAs) to clean up results. Cross-check
that the full first name matches, not just initials.

Step 3 — Fetch BibTeX

Call the ads_bibtex tool with the confirmed bibcodes:

ads_bibtex(bibcodes=["2023ApJ...945L...5Z", "2021AJ....161..244Z"])

The tool returns BibTeX entries with cite keys already formatted as LastYYYY
(e.g. Zhou2021), with a/b/c suffixes when multiple entries share the same
first author and year (e.g. Zhou2022a, Zhou2022b).

Step 4 — Deliver results

Output the BibTeX entries exactly as returned by ads_bibtex, with no
modifications whatsoever — no field additions, no field deletions, no
reformatting, no condensing. The only change already applied by the tool
is the cite key on the first line (e.g. @ARTICLE{Zhou2021,). Every other
field — author, title, journal, keywords, eprint, adsurl,
adsnote, etc. — must be reproduced verbatim.

If the user is working in LaTeX, also show the cite keys so they can use
\cite{key} directly.

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Multi-paper requests (drafting manuscripts)

When the user asks to draft a paragraph or section with citations:

1. Identify all claims that need a reference.
2. For each claim, call ads_search with an appropriate query.
3. Draft the text using \cite{key} placeholders.
4. Append the full BibTeX block at the end, verbatim from ads_bibtex.

Do this iteratively — one search per claim if needed — rather than fabricating
entries to fill gaps.

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Error handling

Situation	Action
ads tools not available	The ADS MCP server is not running. See setup instructions in the repo README.
Zero results	Broaden query: remove year filter, use abs: instead of title:
HTTP 429 (rate limit)	Wait ~2s and retry once
HTTP 401	API key is invalid — user should update it in ads_mcp_server.py
Ambiguous results	Show top 5 and ask user to pick

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ADS query tips

• Author names: ADS stores as "Last, First". Use "Last, F" for initials.
• For Chinese names, try both pinyin romanizations if the first fails.
• arXiv preprints are indexed; use bibstem:arXiv to restrict to them.
• To find a paper from a vague description, use abs: with 3–4 distinctive
  keywords rather than guessing the title.
• Year filter helps when an author has many papers: author:"Zhou, Y" year:2020-2025.