---
title: PaperCast
emoji: 🎙️
colorFrom: purple
colorTo: pink
sdk: gradio
sdk_version: "6.0.0"
app_file: app.py
pinned: false
mcp: true
tags:
  - mcp-in-action-track-consumer
  - text-to-speech
  - research
  - podcast
---

# PaperCast 🎙️

Transform research papers into engaging podcast-style conversations with intelligent paper discovery.

**Track:** `mcp-in-action-track-consumer`

## Overview

PaperCast is an AI agent application featuring two groundbreaking innovations: **Paper Auto-Discovery (PAD)** for intelligent multi-source search, and **Podcast Persona Framework (PPF)** for adaptive conversation styles. Simply search for papers, select one, choose your persona, and get a personalized podcast in under 60 seconds.

## Revolutionary Features

### 🔍 PAD - Paper Auto-Discovery Engine
**Custom-built multi-source academic search system**
- Search across Semantic Scholar (200M+ papers) and arXiv simultaneously
- Parallel API execution with results in under 2 seconds
- Smart deduplication and relevance ranking
- Zero-friction workflow: search → select → podcast

### 🎭 PPF - Podcast Persona Framework
**World's first adaptive persona system for academic podcasts**
- **5 Distinct Conversation Modes**: Friendly Explainer, Academic Debate, Savage Roast, Pedagogical, Interdisciplinary Clash
- Dynamic character personalities (not just voice changes)
- Adaptive dialogue based on selected persona

### ⚡ Core Features
- 📄 **Multiple Input Methods**: PAD search, arXiv URLs, or PDF uploads
- 🤖 **Autonomous Agent**: Intelligent discovery, analysis, and persona-aware generation
- 🗣️ **Studio-Quality Audio**: ElevenLabs Turbo v2.5 or Supertonic CPU TTS
- 📝 **Complete Transcripts**: Download both audio and text versions
- 🚀 **60-Second Pipeline**: From search query to finished podcast in under a minute

## How It Works

1. **🔍 Discovery (PAD)**: Search for papers across Semantic Scholar & arXiv (or use URL/PDF)
2. **📋 Selection**: Choose from curated results with metadata preview
3. **🎭 Persona**: Select conversation style (Friendly, Debate, Roast, Pedagogical, etc.)
4. **📄 Analysis**: AI agent analyzes paper structure and identifies key concepts
5. **🎬 Script Generation**: Creates persona-specific dialogue with distinct characters
6. **🎤 Audio Synthesis**: Converts script to studio-quality audio with ElevenLabs or Supertonic
7. **✅ Output**: Download podcast audio and transcript

## Technical Stack

**Core Innovations** (Built from Scratch):
- **PAD Engine**: Custom Python multi-source search with ThreadPoolExecutor, Semantic Scholar Graph API v1, arXiv API integration
- **PPF System**: Proprietary persona framework with character-aware prompts and dynamic voice mapping

**Production Stack**:
- **Framework**: Gradio 6 with custom glass-morphism UI
- **AI Agent**: Autonomous reasoning with MCP integration
- **LLM**: OpenAI GPT-4o/o1, or local models (universal support)
- **TTS**: ElevenLabs Turbo v2.5 (API) or Supertonic-66M (CPU, no API key required)
- **PDF Processing**: PyMuPDF for fast extraction
- **Platform**: HuggingFace Spaces / Modal

## Installation

```bash
pip install -r requirements.txt
```

**Note:** On first run with Supertonic TTS, models (~400MB) will be automatically downloaded from HuggingFace Hub. This is a one-time operation and may take 1-2 minutes.

## Usage

```bash
python app.py
```

Then open your browser to the provided URL (typically `http://localhost:7860`).

## Project Structure

```
papercast/
├── app.py                      # Main Gradio application with PAD & PPF UI
├── requirements.txt            # Python dependencies
├── README.md                   # This file
├── agents/                     # Agent logic and orchestration
│   └── podcast_agent.py        # Main agent with PPF integration
├── processing/                 # Paper discovery and PDF processing
│   ├── paper_discovery.py      # PAD engine (custom-built)
│   ├── pdf_reader.py           # PDF extraction
│   └── url_fetcher.py          # Paper fetching
├── generation/                 # Script and dialogue generation
│   ├── podcast_personas.py     # PPF persona definitions
│   └── script_generator.py     # LLM-based script generation
├── synthesis/                  # Text-to-speech audio generation
│   ├── tts_engine.py           # ElevenLabs integration
│   └── supertonic_tts.py       # CPU-based TTS
└── utils/                      # Helper functions
    ├── config.py               # Configuration management
    └── history.py              # Podcast history tracking
```

## Team

- batuhanozkose [My HuggingFace profile](https://huggingface.co/batuhanozkose)

## Demo

[DEMO Video] (https://youtu.be/IQ3z2CbWg-Y)

## Social Media

[X Thread Link](https://x.com/batuhan_ozkose/status/1993662091413385422)

## Acknowledgments

Built for the MCP 1st Birthday Hackathon (Track 2: MCP in Action - Consumer).

Special thanks to:
- Anthropic & Gradio for organizing the hackathon
- HuggingFace for hosting infrastructure
- Open source communities for TTS and LLM models

## License

MIT License

---

**Made with ❤️ for the research community**