# Consensus Documentation

> Documentation for Consensus

## Guides
- [Getting Started with the Consensus MCP](https://docs.consensus.app/docs/mcp.md): The Consensus MCP server enables AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, and other MCP-compatible clients to search over 200 million peer-reviewed academic research papers directly from the conversation.

## API Reference
- [Query for relevant papers.](https://docs.consensus.app/reference/v1_quick_search.md): The explicit lifecycle: decide -> execute (cached) -> settle.  The settlement plan is computed before the search and applied exactly as computed after a served response; a rejected request (rate 429, monthly 429, failed charge 401) settles nothing it has not already.