---

name: ads description: Use when the user mentions 'ADS', 'NASA ADS', 'Astrophysics Data System', or asks to search astronomy/astrophysics literature, find papers by bibcode, get citation counts from ADS, or retrieve BibTeX from the ADS database.

NASA ADS Search and Retrieval Skill

Search and retrieve papers from NASA's Astrophysics Data System (ADS).

Requires: requests (pip install requests)

Setup

ADS requires an API token for authentication.

Getting a Token

1. Go to https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
2. Sign in (or create an account)
3. Click your name in the top-right → "Account settings"
4. Select "API Token" from the left sidebar
5. Click "Generate a new key"
6. Copy the token string

Storing the Token

Save your token in one of these locations:

Option 1: Config file (recommended)

Copymkdir -p ~/.ads
echo "YOUR_TOKEN_HERE" > ~/.ads/dev_key
chmod 600 ~/.ads/dev_key

Option 2: Environment variable

Copyexport ADS_DEV_KEY="YOUR_TOKEN_HERE"

Bibcode Format

ADS uses bibcodes as unique identifiers:

• Format: YYYYJJJJJVVVVMPPPPA
• Example: 2019ApJ...882L..12P (ApJ Letters, 2019)

Basic Usage

Copy# Get a record by bibcode
python scripts/ads.py 2019ApJ...882L..12P

# Get BibTeX
python scripts/ads.py 2019ApJ...882L..12P --format bibtex

Searching

Copy# Search by author
python scripts/ads.py --search "author:Einstein"

# Search by first author only
python scripts/ads.py --search "author:^Hawking"

# Search by title
python scripts/ads.py --search 'title:"dark energy"'

# Search by abstract
python scripts/ads.py --search 'abs:"gravitational waves"'

# Search by year range
python scripts/ads.py --search "author:Penrose year:2015-2020"

# Search by journal
python scripts/ads.py --search "bibstem:ApJ year:2023"

# Combined search
python scripts/ads.py --search 'author:Planck title:"cosmological parameters"'

# Limit results
python scripts/ads.py --search "author:Witten" -n 5

Search Query Syntax

Boolean operators: AND (default), OR, NOT, - (negation)

Common Journal Abbreviations

Citations

Copy# Get papers citing a record
python scripts/ads.py 2019ApJ...882L..12P --citations

# Top 20 citing papers
python scripts/ads.py 2019ApJ...882L..12P --citations -n 20

Output Formats

Copy# Default (shows metadata)
python scripts/ads.py 2019ApJ...882L..12P

# BibTeX
python scripts/ads.py 2019ApJ...882L..12P --format bibtex

Typical Workflow

1. Search for papers: python scripts/ads.py --search "author:Name"
2. Note the bibcode
3. Get full details: python scripts/ads.py <bibcode>
4. Get BibTeX: python scripts/ads.py <bibcode> --format bibtex
5. Check citations: python scripts/ads.py <bibcode> --citations

Rate Limits

ADS allows 5000 requests per day per API token.

Comparison with Other Skills

• ADS: Astronomy/astrophysics focus, published papers, bibcodes
• INSPIRE: High-energy physics focus, SPIRES syntax, recids
• arXiv: Preprint source code (LaTeX), all physics categories

Use together: search on ADS for published papers with citation data, use arXiv skill to get source.