NBER-CLI

A command line interface for reaching the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) paper without brower.

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NBER is a registered trademark of the National Bureau of Economic Research. This project is an independent open-source tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research. By using this project, you agree to the Usage Policy.

Features

• Search NBER working papers by title, paper number, author, abstract, or keyword.
• Fetch structured metadata and abstracts for a paper ID such as w25000.
• Download single papers or batches as PDF files.
• Track newly released NBER working papers through a local RSS feed cache (nber-cli feed fetch / feed clean).
• Cache paper metadata locally (nber-cli info writes to info_cache) with a sliding TTL, plus a behavior log for search, download, and info lookups.
• Store the cache, RSS items, and behavior logs in a local SQLite database at ~/.nber-cli/nber.db (path configurable via nber-cli db init / db migrate).
• Expose the same core workflows as MCP tools for AI agents.
• Return human-readable output by default, with JSON output for automation.

See Configuration for the full list of configurable values and the local database layout, and Usage Policy for what NBER-CLI writes to disk by default.

Quick Start

Use in Agents

NBER-CLI can be used by agents through plugins, the MCP server, and the skill. Claude Code and Codex should install the NBER-CLI plugin first; OpenClaw and other agents should use the MCP server plus the skill.

If you want an agent to install and check NBER-CLI automatically, send it this prompt:

Install NBER-CLI globally for yourself from https://github.com/sepinetam/nber-cli, and check the status.

After installation, verify it with either prompt:

I remember that in 2025, Anton had a paper on NBER about Agent for Econ. Download it to the current directory.

I remember that paper w25000 was interesting. Show me its abstract.

If you are an agent, visit the Agent Guides.

CLI Mode

Run commands directly with uvx:

uvx nber-cli search "Labor Economic"
uvx nber-cli info w25000
uvx nber-cli download w34567

Or install the command first:

uv tool install nber-cli
nber-cli search "Labor Economic"
nber-cli info w25000
nber-cli download w34567

MCP Server Mode

NBER-CLI can run as a stdio MCP server:

uvx nber-cli mcp-server

Example MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nber-cli-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["nber-cli", "mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

The MCP server exposes tools for paper lookup, search, and PDF download.

Documentation

More usage details, command references, MCP setup, Python API examples, development notes, and release history are available in the documentation.

Development

uv sync --dev --group docs
uv run pytest
uv run ruff check .
uv run --group docs mkdocs serve

License

NBER-CLI is released under the Apache-2.0 License.