EMBL AI Librarian vs PubMed Search
EMBL AI Librarian is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by Petroni Lab, EMBL. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Community GitHub marketplaces). PubMed Search is an MCP server published by u9401066. Marketplaces we read that list it: 2 (Official MCP Registry, PyPI (MCP servers)). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-11-10. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  PubMed Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Community marketplace petroni-lab/librarian | Listed Version: 1.0.0 Forks (GitHub): 2 Stars (GitHub): 47 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Official MCP Registry | Not listed | Listed Version: 0.8.0 Downloads/month (PyPI): 2 184 Downloads/week (PyPI): 155 Forks (GitHub): 9 Stars (GitHub): 29 Not marked · First seen |
| PyPI (MCP servers) | Not listed | Listed Version: 0.8.0 Downloads/month (PyPI): 2 184 Downloads/week (PyPI): 155 Forks (GitHub): 9 Stars (GitHub): 29 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | EMBL AI Librarian | PubMed Search |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it (differs) | 1 (worse) | 2 (better) |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 47 (better) | 29 (worse) |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 2 (worse) | 9 (better) |
| Last release (differs) | Not published | 2026-10-20 |
| Where it runs (differs) | Installs as a plugin bundle | On your machine (pubmed-search-mcp) |
| Transport (differs) | Not stated | stdio |
| Tools it declares | Not published | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | Not published | 2, secrets among them: 1 |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | 1 | Not a bundle |
| Licence (differs) | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/petroni-lab/librarian | github.com/u9401066/pubmed-search-mcp |
| Changes in the last 7 days | 0 | 0 |
| First seen (differs) | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-13 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
EMBL AI Librarian
Retrieve ranked Europe PMC evidence passages for biomedical research questions.
PubMed Search
Multi-source biomedical literature search: PubMed, Europe PMC, OpenAlex, full text, citations
How to run each
EMBL AI Librarian As a Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add petroni-lab/librarian
/plugin install librarian@librarianPubMed Search As a local MCP server: PyPI package
claude mcp add --env "NCBI_API_KEY=<YOUR_NCBI_API_KEY>" --transport stdio pubmed-search-mcp -- uvx pubmed-search-mcpRequires: NCBI_API_KEY (secret)
Commands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
Neither one's marketplaces publish a list of tools, so there is nothing to compare.
Settings each asks for
The marketplaces of EMBL AI Librarian publish no settings it asks for, so we do not compare settings.
What it can do: EMBL AI Librarian · What it can do: PubMed Search · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Data comes from the Official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io), CC0 1.0. Package data comes from the Python Package Index (pypi.org). Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.