---
title: ToolRouter — Agent Use Case Guide
description: Step-by-step guide for completing a task with a specific AI agent using ToolRouter.
url: https://toolrouter.com/tools/academic-research/use-cases/search-papers-by-topic/copilot
---
# How to Search Papers by Topic with Copilot

Copilot searches academic databases and returns results in your IDE, making it easy to find the original papers behind algorithms you are implementing. Get references for your code comments, find benchmark papers to compare against, and locate implementation details mentioned in paper appendices without switching contexts.

## Setup

{"mcpServers":{"toolrouter":{"command":"npx","args":["-y","toolrouter-mcp"]}}}

## Steps

1. Add ToolRouter to Copilot MCP config
2. In Copilot Chat: "Search for papers on federated learning"
3. Copilot returns relevant academic papers
4. Use the results to inform your implementation
5. Query for more specific subtopics as needed

## Example Prompt

```
Find papers on efficient attention mechanisms for transformers. I need implementation references.
```

## Tips

- Great for finding the original paper behind an algorithm you are implementing
- Search for benchmark papers to compare your results against
- Find reference implementations mentioned in paper appendices
