Resolve scholarly identifiers (DOI including shortDOI aliases, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, arXiv, ISSN, ADS bibcode, WHO IRIS URL) into formatted citations (10,000+ CSL styles) and bibliography exports (BibTeX, RIS, EndNote, CSV…), and check retraction, open-access, and citation-fabrication status — from the terminal via the `scholar` CLI. Wraps the public REST API; needs Node ≥20 but no API key for the free tier. Use when the user wants to look up, cite, export, or verify a reference by DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, arXiv ID, ISSN, ADS bibcode, or WHO IRIS URL from the terminal — including retraction, open-access, and fabricated-citation checks, or a whole-bibliography audit of a .bib/.ris/CSL-JSON file.
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Secondary detail for the scholar CLI. The main workflow lives in SKILL.md;
load this only when you need auth, global flags, or the full exit-code table.
Works anonymously at the free, rate-limited tier — fine for normal agent use. To raise limits:
ssk_. Pass --api-key or set SCHOLAR_API_KEY. Sent as Authorization: Bearer ssk_….--rapidapi-key or RAPIDAPI_KEY — routes through the
RapidAPI gateway, which only exposes format, export, verify, audit, retraction, oa, health.
The canonical-only commands (format-items, stream, styles) should run anonymously or with
a first-party key.| Flag | Env | Default |
|---|---|---|
--base-url | SCHOLAR_SIDEKICK_URL | https://scholar-sidekick.com |
--timeout | SCHOLAR_SIDEKICK_TIMEOUT_MS | 30000 |
--api-key | SCHOLAR_API_KEY | — |
--rapidapi-key | RAPIDAPI_KEY | — |
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
0 | Success |
1 | API error (4xx/5xx), verify --fail-on-mismatch and verdict was mismatch/not_found, or audit --fail-on-issues and the corpus had a mismatch, not-found, or retracted entry |
2 | Network failure or timeout |
3 | Usage error (bad flags or invalid input) |
Check the exit code; on non-zero, report the failure — never invent a citation, retraction
status, OA verdict, or a matched verdict.