# Reported issues for openalex-mcp-server Pod holds 14 of 14 GitHub reports that passed its relevance review. This can include external user reports, maintainer-confirmed bugs, and concrete feature gaps. Treat them as evidence to inspect, not a count of distinct defects. Back to [openalex-mcp-server](/mcp/openalex-mcp-server). ## Most discussed ### bug(search_entities, resolve_name, citation_graph): uppercase ID schemes and PubMed URLs pass through to OpenAlex verbatim and 404 ### Server version 0.7.9 ### mcp-ts-core version 0.12.3 ### Runtime Bun ### Runtime version Bun 1.4.x ### Transport HTTP (Streamable HTTP) ### OS Linux (Docker) ### Description `openalex_search_entities` (`id`), `openalex_resolve_name`, and `openalex_get_citation_graph` (`seed_id`) forward two common identifier spellings to OpenAlex verbatim, and OpenAlex answers 404 for both even though the work exists: | Input | Sent to OpenAlex | Result | |:---|:---|:---| | `PMID:21491125` /… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/66) · 2026-08-25 · closed · 4 comments ### bug(search_entities, resolve_name, citation_graph): PMCID is advertised as an accepted identifier but resolves for no work ### Server version 0.7.11 ### mcp-ts-core version ^0.12.7 ### Runtime Node.js ### Runtime version Node 24 ### Transport HTTP (Streamable HTTP) ### OS macOS ### Description `PMCID` is listed as an accepted identifier on `openalex_search_entities` (`id`), `openalex_resolve_name` (`query`), and `openalex_get_citation_graph` (`seed_id`), and in the matching README bullets. No PMCID resolves — [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org) indexes none, so every `pmcid:` lookup is a guaranteed… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/67) · 2026-09-09 · closed · 2 comments ### feat(config): declare stateless session mode in createApp() — blocked on mcp-ts-core#376 ### Use case `Dockerfile` sets `ENV MCP_SESSION_MODE="stateless"`; every other launch path (`bunx`, `npm start`, a local checkout with no `.env`) gets none of that and falls through to the framework schema default, `auto`, which resolves to `stateful`. The hosted deployment (Docker) runs stateless today, confirmed by the absence of an `Mcp-Session-Id` response header on `initialize`. Source and every non-Docker launch path still disagree with it. `.env.example` was already corrected in… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/65) · 2026-08-22 · open · 2 comments ### feat(search_entities): alias summary_stats leaves (h_index, i10_index) so bibliometric selects resolve ### Use case `select: ["h_index"]` on `authors` fails, and nothing in the failure says where `h_index` actually lives. It is real OpenAlex data at `summary_stats.h_index`, but `select` only projects top-level fields, so the caller has to already know the parent object to reach the leaf. The rejection lists every valid `authors` field. `summary_stats` is in that list, but nothing connects it to `h_index` — the caller sees 21 names, none resembling what they asked for: ``` h_index is not a… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/64) · 2026-07-30 · closed · 2 comments ### bug(describe_fields): query path drops zero-similarity fields, hiding the parent of a nested leaf ### Server version 0.7.10 ### mcp-ts-core version ^0.12.5 ### Runtime Bun ### Runtime version Bun 1.3.14 ### Transport http ### Description `openalex_describe_fields` exists so a caller who guessed a field name can find the real one. Its `query` path fails hardest on exactly that case: `rankFields` drops every candidate scoring `0`, so a field with no lexical overlap with the query is omitted from `fields` while `total` still counts it. `h_index` is real OpenAlex author data — it… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/63) · 2026-07-30 · closed · 2 comments ### bug(enrichment): list responses hide the upstream 100-author cap ### Server version 0.7.12 (`8d6339b`) ### mcp-ts-core version 0.12.7 ### Runtime Node.js ### Runtime version v26.5.0 ### Transport HTTP (Streamable HTTP) ### Description A works list returns only the first 100 authorships of a large collaboration without indicating that the author/affiliation data is partial. The same work's singleton lookup returns the full list. ### Steps to reproduce Call `openalex_search_entities` with: ```json… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/73) · 2026-09-09 · open · 1 comment ### bug(output): large records exceed context limits without bounded retrieval ### Server version 0.7.12 (`8d6339b`) ### mcp-ts-core version 0.12.7 ### Runtime Node.js ### Runtime version v26.5.0 ### Transport HTTP (Streamable HTTP) ### Description Page-size and top-level field selection do not bound response size. One requested field on one work can exceed two megabytes per response surface. Related: #29 (curated defaults; full-record and explicit-field requests remain unbounded). ### Steps to reproduce Call `openalex_search_entities`: ```json… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/72) · 2026-09-09 · open · 1 comment ### bug(text): markup and scientific entities survive normalization unescaped ### Server version 0.7.12 (`8d6339b`) ### mcp-ts-core version 0.12.7 ### Runtime Node.js ### Runtime version v26.5.0 ### Transport HTTP (Streamable HTTP) ### Description Text normalization decodes only six named HTML entities, leaves HTML/JATS markup intact, and interpolates provider strings directly into Markdown. Scientific named entities and literal formatting characters therefore do not survive as readable plain text consistently across clients. Related: #2 (numeric/hex and… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/76) · 2026-09-09 · open · 0 comments ## Most recent ### feat(analyze_trends): label numeric unknown buckets explicitly ### Use case APC distributions expose OpenAlex's numeric missing-value sentinel as if it were a real negative amount. The caller needs to distinguish unknown charges from measured values before comparing publication costs. ### Proposed behavior Preserve the provider key for round-tripping, but label or annotate numeric unknown buckets explicitly on both response surfaces. Document `include_unknown` semantics for numeric groupings. ### Evidence On v0.7.12, call `openalex_analyze_trends`:… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/75) · 2026-09-09 · open · 0 comments ### bug(pagination): exhausted pages receive no-match recovery advice ### Server version 0.7.12 (`8d6339b`) ### mcp-ts-core version 0.12.7 ### Runtime Node.js ### Runtime version v26.5.0 ### Transport HTTP (Streamable HTTP) ### Description Empty terminal pages are presented as queries with no matches, despite nonzero totals and a cursor showing that earlier pages were already consumed. Related: #7 (true-empty query notices). ### Steps to reproduce 1. Search `{"entity_type":"publishers","query":"Elsevier","per_page":2}`. It returns two records and a… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/74) · 2026-09-09 · open · 0 comments ### bug(search_entities): semantic pagination and input limits are silent ### Server version 0.7.12 (`8d6339b`) ### mcp-ts-core version 0.12.7 ### Runtime Node.js ### Runtime version v26.5.0 ### Transport HTTP (Streamable HTTP) ### Description Semantic search accepts a cursor but drops it, exposes no page input, and reports its 50-result candidate cap as a total without explaining the limit. Related: #8 (per-page cap only). ### Steps to reproduce Call `openalex_search_entities`: ```json {"entity_type":"works","query":"Estimating groundwater recharge… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/71) · 2026-09-09 · open · 0 comments ### bug(filters): alias collisions silently overwrite constraints ### Server version 0.7.12 (`8d6339b`) ### mcp-ts-core version 0.12.7 ### Runtime Node.js ### Runtime version v26.5.0 ### Transport HTTP (Streamable HTTP) ### Description `translateFilters()` maps aliases into an object with last-write-wins behavior. Two declared constraints can collapse into one while the response echoes both as applied. Related: #17 (alias introduction). ### Steps to reproduce Call `openalex_search_entities` with `entity_type:"works"`, `per_page:1`,… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/70) · 2026-09-09 · open · 0 comments ### bug(validation): blank inputs become unfiltered successful queries ### Server version 0.7.12 (`8d6339b`) ### mcp-ts-core version 0.12.7 ### Runtime Node.js ### Runtime version v26.5.0 ### Transport HTTP (Streamable HTTP) ### Description Explicitly empty search and aggregation inputs are silently omitted instead of rejected. An empty aggregation field can turn an upstream list response into a successful empty aggregation. ### Steps to reproduce Call: - `openalex_search_entities`: `{"entity_type":"works","id":"","per_page":1,"select":["id"]}`. -… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/69) · 2026-09-09 · open · 0 comments ### bug(identifiers): returned keyword URLs fail to resolve ### Server version 0.7.12 (`8d6339b`) ### mcp-ts-core version 0.12.7 ### Runtime Node.js ### Runtime version v26.5.0 ### Transport HTTP (Streamable HTTP) ### Description Keyword IDs returned by `openalex_search_entities` cannot round-trip into its own ID lookup or `openalex_resolve_name`. Related: #50 (numeric native-ID routing; keyword IDs use a path and slug). ### Steps to reproduce 1. Search: `{"entity_type":"keywords","query":"groundwater","per_page":1}`. The returned ID is… [Read the thread](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues/68) · 2026-09-09 · open · 0 comments The remaining reports are on [the project's issue tracker](https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/issues).