---
title: Semantic Scholar
icon: book
description: Set up a Semantic Scholar API key for the sscholar resource.
---

## Credentials

The Semantic Scholar resource works without an API key for low-volume use, but you should request a key for any production workload to avoid rate limiting.

### 1. Request an API Key

1. Go to https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api
2. Click **Request an API Key** and fill in the form.
3. Wait for the email with your key (usually a business day or two).

### 2. Set Environment Variables

```bash
# .env.development
SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
```

If you skip the key, leave the env var unset; the resource falls back to the public unauthenticated endpoint.

## Limits

The resource exposes tunable defaults to keep an agent from blowing through your rate limit on first contact:

- `defaultListLimit` (100): default page size for list operations.
- `defaultSearchLimit` (20): default page size for search.
- `defaultSnippetLimit` (10): default snippet count per paper.

Override in the resource config:

```ts
new SSCholarResource({
  apiKey: process.env.SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY,
  defaultSearchLimit: 50,
})
```
