arXivTerminal

CLI tool for managing arXiv papers with local database storage.

Important: Fetch Before Search

arxiv search queries the local database only. If the database is empty or doesn't contain relevant papers, search will return no results. Always run arxiv fetch first to populate the database with papers from the desired categories and time range.

Quick Reference

Fetch Papers from arXiv

Download papers and store them in the local database:

arxiv fetch --num-days N --categories CATEGORIES

See arxivterminal-fetch.md for detailed options and examples.

Search Local Database

Search papers already fetched into the local database:

arxiv search QUERY
arxiv search -e -l 20 QUERY    # experimental semantic search, limit 20

Note: arxiv search launches an interactive UI. It is not suitable for non-interactive (piped/scripted) use.

See arxivterminal-search.md for search options.

Show Papers by Date

arxiv show --days-ago N

See arxivterminal-show.md for details.

Database Statistics

arxiv stats

See arxivterminal-stats.md for output format.

Database Management

• Use arxiv delete-all to reset the database
• See arxivterminal-management.md for database location and backup procedures

Data Storage

• Database: ~/Library/Application Support/arxivterminal/papers.db
• Logs: ~/Library/Logs/arxivterminal/arxivterminal.log

Common arXiv Categories

Physics:

• cond-mat.str-el — Strongly Correlated Electrons
• cond-mat.stat-mech — Statistical Mechanics
• quant-ph — Quantum Physics
• hep-th — High Energy Physics (Theory)

CS/ML:

• cs.AI — Artificial Intelligence
• cs.LG — Machine Learning
• cs.CL — Computation and Language

Math:

• math-ph — Mathematical Physics
• math.NA — Numerical Analysis

Common Workflows

Daily Research Workflow

# Step 1: Fetch recent papers into local DB
arxiv fetch --num-days 1 --categories quant-ph,cond-mat.str-el

# Step 2: Search the fetched papers
arxiv search -e -l 20 "variational Monte Carlo"

Weekly Review

arxiv fetch --num-days 7 --categories cs.AI,cs.LG,quant-ph
arxiv stats