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 who work with academic research, arxiv and gemini and want it reachable from Claude, Cursor, VS Code, or another MCP client. The project is written in Python.

VERIFIED ACTIVE

LAST COMMIT 2026-09-17 · ★ 2,367 · #52 OF 71 MAINTAINED SCIENCE & HEALTH · VERIFIED 2026-09-18

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 #52 of 71 actively-maintained science & health servers as of 2026-09-18.
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 2026-09-18, its last commit was 2026-09-17. 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.

More science & health MCP servers · Divlens · MaBoSS Boolean Network Simulator · PhysiCell Configuration Builder · Oura Ring MCP

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