RECON — Terminal-Native Patent Research Tool

RECON is a keyboard-first, terminal-native patent research tool. It aggregates patent data from multiple sources (USPTO, PatSnap, Google Patents, WIPO, Lens.org, EPO), presents results in a clean TUI or CLI, and provides scoring, citation graphs, export, and optional local-AI translation.

Features

• Multi-source search — USPTO API, PatSnap API, Google Patents scraping, WIPO/Lens/EPO via DuckDuckGo + BeautifulSoup
• Source filtering — Include/exclude sources via CLI --source or TUI S overlay
• Signal scoring — Equal-weight 20-point signals (government grants, corporate investment, academic research, temporal recency, news/media)
• Live preview — Three-tab detail pane (Info / Claims / Image) with keyboard navigation
• Citation graph — ASCII tree view of forward/backward citations (scraped from Google Patents or mock data)
• Export — JSON, CSV, BibTeX, Markdown, PDF
• Translation — Optional local translation via Ollama (opt-in, Zero-AI default)
• Terminal-native — No GUI, no Electron, no modal dialogs

Installation

Via PyPI (recommended)

pipx install recon-patent

Via GitHub

pipx install git+https://github.com/anubhavaanand/recon.git

Ensure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH.

Via install script (hacker method)

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anubhavaanand/recon/main/install.sh | bash

Via pip

pip install recon-patent

From source

git clone https://github.com/anubhavaanand/recon.git
cd recon
pip install -e .

Development

pip install -e ".[test,dev]"

Quick Start

Launch the interactive TUI

recon

Type a query (e.g. solid state battery) and press Enter. Navigate results with j/k, open detail with Enter, switch tabs with h/l.

CLI search

recon search "sulfide electrolyte"

Filter by source:

recon search "quantum battery" --source uspto,patsnap,google

End-to-end run with export

recon run "lithium anode" --export json

View saved collection

recon collection list
recon collection clear

Manage API keys

recon config show
recon config set --patsnap-key YOUR_KEY
recon config test

Export collection

recon export --format csv

Formats: json, csv, bibtex, markdown, pdf.

TUI Key Bindings

Key	Action
↑/↓ j/k	Navigate results
Enter	Open detail view
h/l or ←/→	Switch preview tab
/	Focus search input
s	Save patent to collection
e	Export collection overlay
S	Source filter overlay
c	Toggle citation graph
t	Toggle translation
r	Reader mode
m	Synthesis mode
?	Help overlay
q / Esc	Back / Quit

Architecture

recon/
├── cli/                 — Typer CLI (main: search/run/config/collection, export, download)
├── core/
│   ├── models.py        — PatentRecord, CrossReference dataclasses
│   ├── search.py        — Multi-source search orchestration + GP enrichment + source filtering
│   ├── enrichment.py    — Cross-reference intelligence (NIH/NSF/DOE/SEC/arXiv/OpenAlex)
│   ├── scoring.py       — Signal scoring (equal-weight algorithm)
│   ├── metrics.py       — Scoring metrics & contribution breakdown
│   ├── arbitrage.py     — Arbitrage status calculation
│   ├── citations.py     — Citation graph fetching (Google Patents scrape)
│   ├── translation.py   — Local Ollama translation with cache
│   ├── intelligence.py  — Signal aggregation helpers
│   ├── ai.py            — Opt-in local AI (synthesis mode)
│   └── config.py        — Config management (~/.config/recon/config.toml)
├── clients/
│   ├── patent_apis.py   — USPTO, EPO, WIPO, Lens, Google Patents API clients
│   ├── scrapers.py      — Keyless DDG + Google Patents XHR scraping & enrichment
│   ├── base.py          — BaseAsyncClient with rate-limit + backoff
│   ├── base_scraper.py  — Shared scraping plumbing
│   └── circuit_breaker.py — Per-source failure isolation
├── tui/
│   ├── app.py           — Textual App, Tokyo Night theme, light/dark autodetect
│   ├── screens.py       — SearchScreen, DetailScreen, ReaderModeScreen, etc.
│   └── widgets/         — ResultList, Info/Claims/Image tabs, CitationTree,
│                          CommandPalette, AlertBanner, Sixel/Kitty image rendering
├── storage/
│   ├── cache.py         — SQLite cache (search results, collection, translations)
│   └── migrate.py       — Schema migrations
└── tests/               — 262 tests (pytest)

The full design history — original interface mockup, constitution, and every accepted decision — lives in docs/DESIGN_HISTORY.md.

Configuration

Keys are stored in ~/.config/recon/config.toml (chmod 600):

Variable	Source	Required
PATSNAP_API_KEY	PatSnap	No (scraper fallback exists for most features)
USPTO_API_KEY	USPTO	No
EPO_CONSUMER_KEY / EPO_CONSUMER_SECRET	EPO	No (scraper fallback exists)
LENS_API_KEY	Lens.org	No (scraper-only)

Set via recon config set (interactive) or .env file.

Translation (Ollama)

RECON can optionally translate non-English patent abstracts using a local Ollama instance:

# Install Ollama: https://ollama.ai
ollama pull llama3

# RECON auto-detects non-English text and uses Ollama
# Press t in the TUI to toggle translation

When Ollama is not running, RECON gracefully displays the original text.

Testing

pip install -e ".[test]"
pytest

License

MIT