Similar

Similar Papers

Find papers semantically similar to a given paper.

Input

The user provides either:

• A paper identifier — one of:
  • arXiv ID (e.g., 2301.07041 or 2301.07041v3)
  • DOI (e.g., 10.1101/2024.01.15.575423 or any 10.xxxx/... pattern)
  • PubMed ID / PMID (digits only, e.g., 26360422)
• A paper title (contains spaces, reads as natural language)

Identifier detection rules:

• If the input is digits only → treat as PMID
• If the input matches 10.xxxx/... → treat as DOI (covers bioRxiv, medRxiv, and other DOI-minted sources)
• If the input matches a numeric pattern with dots like NNNN.NNNNN (optionally with vN suffix) → treat as arXiv ID
• Otherwise → treat as a title and resolve via search

Do not assume all bioRxiv records use the 10.1101/... prefix. Newer records may use other DOI prefixes.

Tool Chain

Use the Valency MCP tools — they come from the valency MCP server registered by the companion Valency connector extension. If no valency server is registered, tell the user to install the connector and run /mcp auth valency. Stop here.

Step 1: Resolve paper ID (if needed)

If the input is a paper ID (arXiv ID, DOI, or PMID):

Call get_paper_by_id with:

• paper_id (string): the provided ID

If no paper is found, tell the user the ID was not recognized and suggest searching by title instead. Stop here.

If the input looks like a title (contains spaces):

Call search_by_title with:

• query (string): the provided title
• limit (integer): 5

Present the top matches and ask the user to confirm which paper they mean, unless only one result is returned or the top result is a near-exact title match. Use the confirmed paper's ID for the next step.

If no results are found, suggest the user check the title or try keywords from it. Stop here.

Step 2: Find similar papers

Call find_similar_papers with:

• paper_id (string): the resolved paper ID
• limit (integer): 10

If the paper has no embedding and returns an error, tell the user that semantic similarity is not available for this paper and suggest trying semantic_search_papers with keywords from its abstract instead. Stop here.

Step 3: Enrich results (if needed)

The results from Step 2 already include metadata (title, authors, abstract, categories). If any result is missing abstract or author data, call get_paper_by_id for those papers.

Output Format

Source Paper

Display the seed paper's details:

• Title: full title
• Authors: first 5, then "et al." if more
• Year: publication year
• Source: which server (arXiv, bioRxiv, etc.)
• Abstract: first 2-3 sentences

Similar Papers

A numbered list ranked by similarity. For each paper:

• Title (with paper ID)
• Authors: first 3, then "et al." if more
• Year
• Category
• Abstract summary: one sentence capturing the paper's contribution

Suggested Follow-ups

• /valency:profile <author> — for any author that appears in multiple similar papers
• /valency:similar <paper_id> — to continue exploring from any listed paper