Agent skill · research science · google-deepmind
literature-search-biorxiv
Browse, filter, and download life sciences, biology, and medical preprints from bioRxiv and medRxiv. Supports fetching paper metadata by DOI, and browsing by date range with category and keyword filters. Keyword filtering is local, so date ranges MUST be narrow (1-4 weeks) with a category to prevent timeouts.
Why this skill is useful
Adds specific scripts for fetching and filtering bioRxiv and medRxiv preprints that the AI wouldn't generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires uv installed locally. About 4k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-07-07. 2,648 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
bioRxiv and medRxiv Literature Search Prerequisites 1. uv: Read the uv skill and follow its Setup instructions to ensure uv is installed and on PATH. 2. User Notification: If .licenses/literaturesearchbiorxivLICENSE.txt does not already exist in the workspace root directory then (1) prominently notify the user to check the terms at https://api.biorxiv.org/ and https://www.biorxiv.org/content/about-biorxiv and to always check the license of the papers retrieved by the skill for any restrictions, then (2) create the file recording the notification text and timestamp. Search Strategy Guide (Read First) This skill browses a date-based preprint archive. It is NOT a keyword search engine. Choose your approach based on what you already know: A DOI (e.g., from a citation): Use searchbydoi.py. Fast and reliable. Approximate date + category: Use searchbydates.py with a 1–4 week range and --category. Only a topic or keywords, no date: Do NOT use this skill for discovery. Use a keyword-capable literature skill first to find relevant DOIs, then return here to fetch metadata. CRITICAL ANTI-PATTERN — Do NOT do this: Do NOT attempt to search broad date ranges (months or years) with --keywords hoping to find a specific paper. The bioRxiv API does not support server-side keyword search. The script must download ALL metadata for the entire date range and filter locally in Python. Broad ranges will result in thousands of API calls, timeouts, and your request being blocked for API abuse. This is the #1 reason this skill fails. Core Rules Use the Wrapper: ALWAYS execute the provided helper scripts to query the database rather than accessing the database directly. The scripts automatically enforce the required rate limit gracefully. Local Filtering (CRITICAL WARNING): Unlike arXiv, the bioRxiv API does not support server-side keyword or author searches. Keyword and author filtering is performed locally by the scripts after downloading all metadata for a specified date range. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills google-deepmind/literature_search_biorxiv