Paper Banana MCP Server

Automated Academic Illustration for AI Scientists An agentic framework for generating publication-quality academic diagrams and statistical plots from text descriptions. Supports OpenAI (GPT-5.2 + GPT-Image-1.5), Azure OpenAI / Foundry, Google Gemini, and Atlas Cloud providers. It runs locally over stdio via the published package.

People connecting science & health tools to Claude, Cursor, VS Code, or another MCP client. The project is written in Python.

VERIFIED ACTIVE

LAST COMMIT 2026-08-17 · ★ 2,279 · #2 OF 60 MAINTAINED SCIENCE & HEALTH · VERIFIED 2026-08-25

MIT · Python servers · how we verify → /methodology

01 · Install Paper Banana

before you install - you'll need

Set GOOGLE_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENAI_BASE_URL, OPENAI_VLM_MODEL, OPENAI_IMAGE_MODEL, ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY, ATLASCLOUD_BASE_URL, ATLASCLOUD_VLM_MODEL, ATLASCLOUD_IMAGE_BASE_URL, ATLASCLOUD_IMAGE_MODEL, GOOGLE_VLM_MODEL, GOOGLE_IMAGE_MODEL before connecting.

Claude Code

claude mcp add llmsresearch-paperbanana -- uvx paperbanana

Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code - add to config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "llmsresearch-paperbanana": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "paperbanana"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Same JSON for Cursor. For VS Code, rename the top-level key from `mcpServers` to `servers`.

Using another client? Same JSON, different key

Claude Desktop · mcpServers

Cursor · mcpServers

VS Code · servers

Windsurf · mcpServers

Zed · context_servers

Cline · mcpServers

Roo Code · mcpServers

Continue · mcpServers

LibreChat · mcpServers

Gemini CLI · mcpServers

Codex CLI · mcp_servers

Full setup guides: every client.

02 · Evidence

Security posture

What to check before giving this server access to your agent - from the registry, GitHub, and our own probes. We don't score safety; we show what's verifiable.

runs as local process (stdio) - runs on your machine with your user's permissions

license MIT - declared in the repository

pypi package paperbanana - check the name against the project README before installing (PyPI has no namespace ownership)

registry namespace io.github.llmsresearch is GitHub-verified and matches the repo owner

03 · What Paper Banana can do

Prose above is summarized from the project's README and registry record - no invented capabilities.

Latest releases

v0.3.0 · 2026-06-12

PaperBanana v0.3.0 · The feature release that closes out the entire issue tracker - every open issue and PR resolved. Highlights below; the dataset, benchmarking, and venue work make this the most research-credible…

bench-data-v1 · 2026-06-11

Mirror of PaperBananaBench.zip (254 MB) from the original authors' dataset dwzhu/PaperBananaBench (last upstream update 2026-03-22), re-hosted here so paperbanana data download has a stable, project-controlled source.…

v0.2.0 · 2026-06-11

PaperBanana v0.2.0 · The first release in four months - 150+ commits. If you installed from PyPI, this is a very different (and much better) tool than 0.1.2. Fresh installs work again out of the box (the deprecated…

04 · Who maintains Paper Banana

PaperBanana is maintained by llmsresearch. It's the only MCP server we track from this author; the repo dates to Feb 2026.

05 · Facts

repository: github.com/llmsresearch/paperbanana
category: science & health - ranked #2 of 60 actively-maintained science & health servers as of 2026-08-25.
release cadence: 3 releases in the last 90 days (latest 2026-06-12)
registry: io.github.llmsresearch/paperbanana (active, first published 2026-02-05)
packages: pypi:paperbanana

06 · Paper Banana FAQ

What is Paper Banana?

Is Paper Banana still maintained?

Yes - as of 2026-08-25, its last commit was 2026-08-17 and it shipped 3 releases in the last 90 days. We re-verify nightly.

How do I install Paper Banana?

Run `uvx paperbanana`. The README documents 12 environment variables (GOOGLE_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENAI_BASE_URL…) to set first. Set GOOGLE_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENAI_BASE_URL, OPENAI_VLM_MODEL, OPENAI_IMAGE_MODEL, ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY, ATLASCLOUD_BASE_URL, ATLASCLOUD_VLM_MODEL, ATLASCLOUD_IMAGE_BASE_URL, ATLASCLOUD_IMAGE_MODEL, GOOGLE_VLM_MODEL, GOOGLE_IMAGE_MODEL before connecting. You can also paste the ready-made client config above.

Does Paper Banana run locally?

Yes - it's a stdio server: it runs on your machine (via uvx) with your user's permissions. Your data stays local unless the server itself calls external APIs.

07 · Alternatives to Paper Banana

Alternatives to Paper Banana

Maintained science & health servers if Paper Banana isn't the fit.

head to head · Arxiv MCP Server (blazickjp) vs Paper Banana · Pubmed MCP Server vs Paper Banana · Codescene MCP Server vs Paper Banana

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