> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/getcompanion-ai/feynman/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# AlphaXiv

> Academic paper search, reading, Q&A, code inspection, and annotations via the alpha CLI.

AlphaXiv is Feynman's primary academic paper platform. It provides access to a large corpus of research papers along with search, full-text reading, targeted Q\&A, linked code repository inspection, and persistent annotations. The Researcher agent uses the `alpha` CLI for all paper operations during research workflows.

## Authentication

AlphaXiv requires authentication. Set it up once during initial setup or at any time:

```bash theme={null}
feynman alpha login
```

Check your authentication status:

```bash theme={null}
feynman alpha status
```

Log out:

```bash theme={null}
feynman alpha logout
```

Authentication tokens are stored in `~/.feynman/auth/` and persist across sessions. No additional configuration is needed beyond logging in.

<Note>
  If you choose not to authenticate with AlphaXiv, Feynman falls back to web search for finding papers. This works for well-known work but misses citation metadata, discussion threads, and full-text access. For serious research workflows, AlphaXiv authentication is strongly recommended.
</Note>

## Commands

All paper operations use the `alpha` CLI via bash. The Feynman `alpha-research` skill teaches the agent to use these commands automatically.

| Command                                 | Description                                                                |
| --------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `alpha search "<query>"`                | Search papers. Uses semantic mode by default.                              |
| `alpha search --mode keyword "<query>"` | Exact-term keyword search.                                                 |
| `alpha search --mode agentic "<query>"` | Broader agentic retrieval.                                                 |
| `alpha get <arxiv-id-or-url>`           | Fetch paper content and any local annotation.                              |
| `alpha get --full-text <arxiv-id>`      | Get raw full text instead of an AI report.                                 |
| `alpha ask <arxiv-id> "<question>"`     | Ask a targeted question about a paper's PDF.                               |
| `alpha code <github-url> [path]`        | Read files from a paper's linked GitHub repo. Use `/` for a repo overview. |
| `alpha annotate <paper-id> "<note>"`    | Save a persistent annotation on a paper.                                   |
| `alpha annotate --clear <paper-id>`     | Remove an annotation.                                                      |
| `alpha annotate --list`                 | List all saved annotations.                                                |

## Examples

```bash theme={null}
# Search for papers on a topic
alpha search "transformer scaling laws"
alpha search --mode agentic "efficient attention mechanisms for long context"

# Fetch a paper by arXiv ID
alpha get 2106.09685

# Ask a targeted question about a paper
alpha ask 2106.09685 "What optimizer did they use?"

# Inspect code from a paper's repository
alpha code https://github.com/karpathy/nanoGPT src/model.py
alpha code https://github.com/karpathy/nanoGPT /

# Manage persistent annotations
alpha annotate 2106.09685 "Key paper on LoRA - revisit for adapter comparison"
alpha annotate --list
alpha annotate --clear 2106.09685
```

## How the Researcher agent uses AlphaXiv

The Researcher uses the `alpha` CLI as its primary tool for academic content. Its selection logic:

| Topic type                                | Tool                                     |
| ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Academic papers, literature review        | `alpha search`, `alpha get`, `alpha ask` |
| Current products, releases, pricing, docs | `web_search`, `fetch_content`            |
| Mixed topics                              | Both, combined                           |

For papers provided by arXiv ID, the Researcher fetches them directly with `alpha get`. For open-ended topics, it runs 2–4 varied `alpha search` queries simultaneously to map the landscape before narrowing.

When citing papers from alpha-backed tools, Feynman prefers direct arXiv or AlphaXiv links and includes the arXiv ID in the reference.

<Tip>
  Use `alpha search --mode agentic` when broad retrieval is needed and `--mode keyword` only for exact-term lookups. Semantic mode (the default) performs best for most research queries.
</Tip>