Documentation Index#

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.crewai.com/llms.txt Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

The ArxivPaperTool searches arXiv for papers matching a query and optionally downloads PDFs.

ArxivPaperTool#

Description#

The ArxivPaperTool queries the arXiv API for academic papers and returns compact, readable results. It can also optionally download PDFs to disk.

Installation#

This tool has no special installation beyond crewai-tools.

uv add crewai-tools

No API key is required. This tool uses the public arXiv Atom API.

Steps to Get Started#

1. Initialize the tool.
2. Provide a search_query (e.g., “transformer neural network”).
3. Optionally set max_results (1–100) and enable PDF downloads in the constructor.

Example#

from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew
from crewai_tools import ArxivPaperTool

tool = ArxivPaperTool(
    download_pdfs=False,
    save_dir="./arxiv_pdfs",
    use_title_as_filename=True,
)

agent = Agent(
    role="Researcher",
    goal="Find relevant arXiv papers",
    backstory="Expert at literature discovery",
    tools=[tool],
    verbose=True,
)

task = Task(
    description="Search arXiv for 'transformer neural network' and list top 5 results.",
    expected_output="A concise list of 5 relevant papers with titles, links, and summaries.",
    agent=agent,
)

crew = Crew(agents=[agent], tasks=[task])
result = crew.kickoff()

Direct usage (without Agent)#

from crewai_tools import ArxivPaperTool

tool = ArxivPaperTool(
    download_pdfs=True, 
    save_dir="./arxiv_pdfs",
)
print(tool.run(search_query="mixture of experts", max_results=3))

Parameters#

Initialization Parameters#

• download_pdfs (bool, default False): Whether to download PDFs.
• save_dir (str, default ./arxiv_pdfs): Directory to save PDFs.
• use_title_as_filename (bool, default False): Use paper titles for filenames.

Run Parameters#

• search_query (str, required): The arXiv search query.
• max_results (int, default 5, range 1–100): Number of results.

Output format#

The tool returns a human‑readable list of papers with:

• Title
• Link (abs page)
• Snippet/summary (truncated)

When download_pdfs=True, PDFs are saved to disk and the summary mentions saved files.

Usage Notes#

• The tool returns formatted text with key metadata and links.
• When download_pdfs=True, PDFs will be stored in save_dir.

Troubleshooting#

• If you receive a network timeout, re‑try or reduce max_results.
• Invalid XML errors indicate an arXiv response parse issue; try a simpler query.
• File system errors (e.g., permission denied) may occur when saving PDFs; ensure save_dir is writable.

Related links#

• arXiv API docs: https://info.arxiv.org/help/api/index.html

Error Handling#

• Network issues, invalid XML, and OS errors are handled with informative messages.