paper-digester

A lightweight CLI and dashboard for turning arXiv papers into structured academic paper reviews in Markdown.

Quick Start

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -e .[dev]

paper-digester init
paper-digester add https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762 --download-pdf --project-context "My project studies image segmentation under limited training data."
paper-digester list

Directory Structure

All outputs are stored under your configured <notes_dir>:

<notes_dir>/
  summary/
    INDEX.md
    <slug>.md
  pdfs/
    <slug>.pdf

Core Features

• arXiv ingestion (paper-digester add <arxiv_url_or_id>)
• Optional PDF download (--download-pdf)
• Coursework-ready review generation in this format:
  • Paper Reference
  • Goal of the Paper
  • Data
  • Algorithm
  • Statistical Results
  • Your Interpretation
• Optional project-aware interpretation via --project-context
• PDF body extraction reads available text and stops at back matter headings such as:
  • References / Bibliography
  • Acknowledgments / Acknowledgements
  • Appendix / Appendices
• OpenAI-powered review generation when OPENAI_API_KEY is set
• Deterministic heuristic fallback when no API key is present
• Notes index + list/search utilities
• Local web dashboard for browsing and search

Install

Option A: pipx

pipx install .

Option B: editable install

python -m pip install -e .

CLI Commands

• paper-digester init [--notes-dir PATH]
• paper-digester add <arxiv_url|arxiv_id> [--tags ...] [--notes-dir PATH] [--download-pdf] [--project-context "..."]
• paper-digester list
• paper-digester search <keyword>
• paper-digester web [--notes-dir PATH] [--host 127.0.0.1] [--port 8017]
• paper-digester config show
• paper-digester config set notes_dir PATH
• paper-digester migrate [--notes-dir PATH]

Web Dashboard

paper-digester web

Open: http://127.0.0.1:8017

Dashboard supports:

• review list
• keyword search
• markdown rendering
• PDF link (if downloaded)

Development

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -e .[dev]
pytest -q

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Security

See SECURITY.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.