About Cerebrum
Cerebrum is a scientific literature search engine for people seeking evidence-backed answers. It searches 14 open scholarly databases in parallel and returns answers with citations linking to papers.
Key features
- 01Search scholarly databases in parallel
- 02Generate answers to research questions
- 03Link citations to accessible papers
Use cases
- 01Find papers relevant to a scientific question
- 02Review cited evidence for a research topic
Configuration
Remote servers need no local install. Pick your client, then copy the config or install in one click.
https://askcerebrum.org/mcpclaude mcp add --transport http org-askcerebrum-cerebrum https://askcerebrum.org/mcp{"mcpServers":{"org-askcerebrum-cerebrum":{"type":"http","url":"https://askcerebrum.org/mcp"}}}Open in Cursor{"servers":{"org-askcerebrum-cerebrum":{"type":"http","url":"https://askcerebrum.org/mcp"}}}Open in VS Code{"mcpServers":{"org-askcerebrum-cerebrum":{"type":"http","url":"https://askcerebrum.org/mcp"}}}{"mcpServers":{"org-askcerebrum-cerebrum":{"serverUrl":"https://askcerebrum.org/mcp"}}}Run commands in a terminal; paste JSON into the client’s MCP config and restart. Servers that need sign-in will prompt on first connect.
Tools
2| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| query | string | Yes | A research question or topic to search for in the scientific literature. |
Details
From the project READMECerebrum
A scientific literature search engine at askcerebrum.org.
Ask a question. Cerebrum searches 14 open scholarly databases in parallel, then writes an answer whose citations link to papers you can open and check.
The count is not typed here — it is derived from SCHOLARLY_SOURCES in functions/lib/product.js, and npm run check fails the build if any copy in the repository disagrees with it.
Stack
- Frontend: React + Vite, deployed as static site on Cloudflare Pages
- Backend: Cloudflare Pages Functions (
functions/api/search.js) - AI: OpenRouter free models (Gemini Flash, DeepSeek, Llama, Qwen, Mistral) + Pollinations legs + Cloudflare Workers AI fallback
- Databases: see
SCHOLARLY_SOURCESinfunctions/lib/product.jsfor the authoritative list - Animation: GSAP for choreography, OGL for the WebGL background. Both bundled; nothing is loaded from a CDN.
Deploy
npm install
npx wrangler login
npm run deploy
Then add secrets (once):
npx wrangler pages secret put OPENROUTER_KEY
npx wrangler pages secret put OPENALEX_KEY # optional
npx wrangler pages secret put NCBI_API_KEY # optional
Local development
npm install
cp dev.vars.example .dev.vars # fill in your OPENROUTER_KEY
npm run dev
Cost
Everything runs on free tiers. Cloudflare Pages (100k requests/day), OpenRouter free models, and free scholarly APIs.
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