Prevent unified research search from stalling on slow providers

[Copilot]

Some search_papers requests could hang long enough for Claude Desktop to report an interrupted response, causing the research flow to stop. This change makes unified search resilient to slow/hanging upstream connectors by failing slow sources independently and returning partial results.

• Per-source timeout isolation in unified search

  • Added SEARCH_PAPERS_SOURCE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS and _run_search_with_timeout(...) in paper_search_mcp/server.py.
  • Wrapped each source task in search_papers(...) with asyncio.wait_for(...).
  • On timeout, the source is recorded in errors and contributes 0 results, while other sources continue and return normally.

• Behavioral coverage for timeout path

  • Added tests/test_search_papers_timeout.py with focused async tests:
    • one source times out while another succeeds (partial results preserved),
    • normal non-timeout path remains unchanged.

async def _run_search_with_timeout(source_name: str, search_task):
    try:
        return await asyncio.wait_for(search_task, timeout=SEARCH_PAPERS_SOURCE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS)
    except asyncio.TimeoutError as exc:
        raise TimeoutError(
            f"search for source '{source_name}' timed out after {SEARCH_PAPERS_SOURCE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS} seconds"
        ) from exc

Warning

Firewall rules blocked me from connecting to one or more addresses (expand for details)

I tried to connect to the following addresses, but was blocked by firewall rules:

• api.archives-ouvertes.fr
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• api.base-search.net
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• api.biorxiv.org
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• api.crossref.org
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• api.medrxiv.org
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• api.openaire.eu
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• api.semanticscholar.org
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• citeseerx.ist.psu.edu
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• dblp.org
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• doaj.org
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• eprint.iacr.org
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python - (dns block)
• export.arxiv.org
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python - (dns block)
• scholar.google.com
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• sci-hub.se
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)
• zenodo.org
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/python python -m unittest discover -s tests -p test_*.py -q (dns block)

If you need me to access, download, or install something from one of these locations, you can either:

• Configure Actions setup steps to set up my environment, which run before the firewall is enabled
• Add the appropriate URLs or hosts to the custom allowlist in this repository's Copilot coding agent settings (admins only)