Inciteful MCP: the citation graph inside your AI assistant

Claude

1. In Claude, open Customize → Connectors, click + Add, then Add custom connector.
2. Name it “Inciteful”, paste https://incitefulmed.com/academic/mcp as the server URL, and continue.
3. Under Authentication, choose No sign in, then click Add.
4. In a chat, click +, open Connectors and turn Inciteful on.
5. Ask: “Using Inciteful, find papers similar to 10.1038/nature14539.”

Free plans allow one custom connector. On Team and Enterprise plans, an owner adds it under Organization settings → Connectors, and members connect it from Customize → Connectors.

Steps checked on 2026-10-30 against Anthropic’s custom connector guide.

ChatGPT

1. Open ChatGPT’s Plugins page (chatgpt.com/plugins), select the + button, then Add custom MCP server.
2. Enter the name “Inciteful” and a short description. Under Connection, choose a public endpoint and paste https://incitefulmed.com/academic/mcp.
3. For authentication, pick the option without sign-in: Inciteful needs no account. Review the warning, select I understand and want to continue, then Create as a plugin.
4. In a new chat, type @, pick Inciteful and ask your question.

Account and workspace policies decide whether you can add custom MCP servers. In a business workspace, an admin may need to allow it.

Steps checked on 2026-10-30 against OpenAI’s guide to connecting an MCP server.

Cursor

1. Open ~/.cursor/mcp.json for all your projects, or .cursor/mcp.json in one project.
2. Add the server:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "inciteful": {
         "url": "https://incitefulmed.com/academic/mcp"
       }
     }
   }

3. Save the file. Inciteful appears with your MCP servers under Customize in the sidebar, where you can turn it on or off.

Steps checked on 2026-10-30 against Cursor’s MCP docs.

Claude Code

1. Run:

   claude mcp add --transport http inciteful https://incitefulmed.com/academic/mcp

2. That adds it for the current project. Add --scope user to use it in all your projects.
3. Start claude and ask, for example: “Using Inciteful, find the important papers around 10.1038/nature14539.”

Steps checked on 2026-10-30 against Claude Code’s MCP docs.

VS Code

1. Open the Command Palette and run MCP: Add Server, then choose HTTP (HTTP or Server-Sent Events).
2. Paste https://incitefulmed.com/academic/mcp, enter the ID inciteful, and choose where to save it (Global makes it available in every workspace).
3. Or add it to .vscode/mcp.json yourself:

   {
     "servers": {
       "inciteful": {
         "type": "http",
         "url": "https://incitefulmed.com/academic/mcp"
       }
     }
   }

4. Ask your question in the Chat view.

Steps checked on 2026-10-30 against VS Code’s MCP server docs.

Other clients

1. Add a remote MCP server with the URL https://incitefulmed.com/academic/mcp. The transport is Streamable HTTP.
2. Leave authentication empty: no API key, header or sign-in.
3. Clients configured with JSON often take {"mcpServers": {"inciteful": {"url": "…"}}}, but key names vary, so check your client’s docs.

Steps checked on 2026-10-30 against the MCP transport specification.