learner

A Rust-powered academic research management system

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Features

• Academic Paper Management

  • Extract metadata from multiple sources (arXiv, IACR, DOI)
  • Support for both URLs and direct identifiers
  • Automatic source detection
  • Full paper metadata including authors, abstracts, and publication dates

• Local Database Management

  • SQLite-based storage for offline access
  • Full-text search capabilities
  • Case-insensitive title search
  • Duplicate detection and handling
  • Platform-specific default locations
  • PDF management with configurable storage location

• Command Line Interface (learnerd)

  • Interactive database management
  • Paper addition and retrieval
  • Search functionality
  • PDF downloading and management
  • Beautiful, colored output
  • Detailed logging options

Installation

Library

Add this to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
learner = "0.2"  # Core library

CLI Tool

cargo install learnerd

which will install a binary you can reference with the command learner.

Usage

Library Usage

use learner::{Paper, Database};

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Initialize database with default paths
    let db = Database::open(Database::default_path()).await?;
    
    // Add papers from various sources
    let paper = Paper::new("https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.07041").await?;
    paper.save(&db).await?;
    
    // Download PDF if available
    let pdf_dir = Database::default_pdf_path();
    paper.download_pdf(pdf_dir).await?;
    
    // Add papers from other sources
    let paper = Paper::new("10.1145/1327452.1327492").await?;  // From DOI
    let paper = Paper::new("2023/123").await?;                 // From IACR
    
    Ok(())
}

CLI Usage

# Initialize a new database (interactive)
learner init

# Add a paper (auto-detects source)
learner add 2301.07041
learner add "https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.07041"
learner add "10.1145/1327452.1327492"

# Skip PDF download
learner add 2301.07041 --no-pdf

# Download PDF for existing paper
learner download arxiv 2301.07041

# Retrieve paper details
learner get arxiv 2301.07041

# Search papers
learner search "neural networks"

# Verbose output for debugging
learner -v add 2301.07041

# Clean up database (with confirmation)
learner clean

Daemon Management

learnerd can run as a background service for paper monitoring and updates.

System Service Installation

Linux (sytemd):

# Install and start
sudo learnerd daemon install
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now learnerd

# Manage
sudo systemctl status learnerd     # Check status
sudo journalctl -u learnerd -f     # View logs
sudo systemctl restart learnerd    # Restart service

# Remove
sudo systemctl disable --now learnerd
sudo learnerd daemon uninstall

MacOS (launchd):

# Install and start
sudo learner daemon install
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/learnerd.daemon.plist

# Manage
sudo launchctl list | grep learnerd           # Check status
tail -f /Library/Logs/learnerd/learnerd.log   # View logs
sudo launchctl kickstart -k system/learnerd.daemon  # Restart

# Remove
sudo launchctl bootout system/learnerd.daemon
sudo learner daemon uninstall

Logs

• Linux: /var/log/learnerd/
• macOS: /Library/Logs/learnerd/

Files: learnerd.log (main, rotated daily), stdout.log, stderr.log

Troubleshooting

• Permission Errors: Check ownership of log directories
• Won't Start: Check system logs and remove stale PID file if present
• Installation: Run commands as root/sudo

Project Structure

The project consists of two main components:

1. learner - Core library providing:

   • Paper metadata extraction
   • Database management
   • PDF download capabilities
   • Source-specific clients (arXiv, IACR, DOI)
   • Error handling

2. learnerd - CLI application offering:

   • User-friendly interface
   • PDF management
   • Interactive confirmations
   • Colored output
   • Logging and debugging capabilities

Roadmap

Phase 1: Core Improvements

• PDF management
• PDF content extraction
• DB/Paper removal functionality
• Batch paper operations
• Export capabilities
• Enhanced search features
• Custom metadata fields

Phase 2: Advanced Features

• LLM-powered paper analysis
• PDF daemon for paper versioning and annotations
• Automated paper discovery
• Citation graph analysis
• Web interface

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. Before making major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Continuous Integration

The project maintains code quality through automated CI workflows:

• Code Formatting

  • rustfmt: Enforces consistent Rust code formatting
  • taplo: Ensures TOML files (like Cargo.toml) follow consistent style

• Code Quality

  • clippy: Rust's official linter for catching common mistakes and enforcing best practices

  • cargo-udeps: Identifies unused dependencies to keep the project lean

• Testing

  • Runs the full test suite across all workspace members
  • TODO: Check cross-platform

• Release Safety

  • cargo-semver-checks: Verifies that version bumps follow semantic versioning rules
  • Prevents accidental breaking changes in minor/patch releases

All CI checks must pass before merging pull requests, maintaining consistent quality across contributions.

Development

This project uses just as a command runner.

# First time setup
cargo install just
just setup  # installs dependencies, targets, and required tools

Common Commands

just         # show all available commands
just ci      # run all checks (fmt, lint, test, build)
just test    # run test suite
just fmt     # format code

Platform Builds

just build-all        # build all targets
just build-linux      # linux (x86_64-musl)
just build-mac        # macOS (arm64)

All commands support standard Cargo flags:

just test -- --release  # run tests in release mode
just build -- --quiet   # quiet build output

[!TIP] Running just ci locally ensures your code will pass CI checks!

System Requirements

The setup command will attempt to install required system dependencies, but if you need to install them manually:

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install pkg-config libssl-dev

macOS

brew install openssl@3
export OPENSSL_DIR=$(brew --prefix openssl@3)  # Add to your shell profile

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• arXiv API for paper metadata
• IACR for cryptography papers
• CrossRef for DOI resolution
• SQLite for local database support