AI agents: read docs/for-agents.md first. It covers which route to use, setup, and the commands in one place.
Three ways in
One package, zotero-mcp-server, ships all three. Pick the one that fits where you work.
| MCP server | zotero-cli + agent skill | Zotero Agent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| For | Chat apps that speak MCP but have no shell: Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cherry Studio, Chorus | Agents with a shell: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, Amp, OpenCode | Chatting inside Zotero, next to the PDF you are reading |
| How | zotero-mcp setup | zotero-mcp install-skill | zotero-cli plugin, then install the .xpi in Zotero |
| Why | Works in any MCP client | 98 tokens in context until it is needed, instead of ~17k | Knows the item, page and selection you have open; answers link to pages |
| Guide | Getting started | CLI and agent skill | Zotero Agent plugin |
What it does
- Search by title, author, tag, collection, full text, or meaning (semantic search with local, OpenAI, Gemini, or Ollama embeddings)
- Read metadata, BibTeX, full text, and page ranges of PDFs, with page images where text extraction garbles math, figures, and tables
- Annotate: highlights and area boxes placed on the exact words, figure, table, or equation; notes; PDF annotation extraction
- Write: add papers by DOI, URL, ISBN, BibTeX, or file (with open-access PDFs), manage collections and tags, merge duplicates
- Local or web: in local mode reads come straight from
zotero.sqlite; writes go to the running Zotero 10+ or through the web API - Scite citation tallies and retraction alerts (optional)
Quick start
1. Install (Python 3.10+):
uv tool install zotero-mcp-server # or: pip install zotero-mcp-server
New to the command line? Try the community-built Zotero MCP Setup: a macOS GUI installer, one-click scripts for Mac and Windows, and a step-by-step guide.
2. Enable Zotero's local API: in Zotero 7+, open Settings → Advanced and tick Allow other applications on this computer to communicate with Zotero.
3. Connect your assistant:
zotero-mcp setup # auto-configures Claude Desktop
or add the server by hand to claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"zotero": {
"command": "zotero-mcp",
"env": { "ZOTERO_LOCAL": "true" }
}
}
}
Teach the agent to drive zotero-cli (the cheaper route, see below):
zotero-mcp install-skill
Or use the MCP server: for Claude Code, add the same mcpServers entry as above to ~/.claude.json.
See Getting started.
zotero-cli plugin # where the .xpi is, and how to install it
Then in Zotero: Tools > Plugins, the gear, Install Plugin From File. Details: Zotero Agent plugin.
4. Writes (optional): on Zotero 10+, run zotero-mcp authorize-local once and choose Always Allow. On older Zotero, add ZOTERO_API_KEY and ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID to write through the web API.
Then ask things like "Find papers in my library on attention mechanisms", "Summarize the key findings of this paper", or "Highlight the main claims of this PDF".
Optional extras
The base install covers search, reading, annotations, and writes. Heavier features are extras:
| Extra | What it adds | Install command |
|---|---|---|
semantic | Semantic search via ChromaDB, sentence-transformers, OpenAI/Gemini embeddings | pip install "zotero-mcp-server[semantic]" |
pdf | PDF outlines, page layout and page images (PyMuPDF), EPUB annotations | pip install "zotero-mcp-server[pdf]" |
scite | Scite citation tallies and retraction alerts (no account needed) | pip install "zotero-mcp-server[scite]" |
all | Everything above | pip install "zotero-mcp-server[all]" |
Update any time with zotero-mcp update.
MCP server or agent skill?
If your agent has a shell (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, Amp, OpenCode …), one command teaches it to drive zotero-cli:
zotero-mcp install-skill
An MCP server sends every tool's schema on every request, before you type anything. The skill costs 98 tokens until the agent decides it is relevant:
| Route | In context | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| MCP server, default profile (41 tools) | 16,815 | every request |
| MCP server, all tools (53) | 20,942 | every request |
| Agent skill, frontmatter only | 98 | always |
| Agent skill, body loaded | 2,400 | when it fires |
| Agent skill + full command reference | 6,158 | worst case |
Use the MCP server when your client speaks MCP but has no shell (Claude Desktop, ChatGPT); use the skill when it has a shell. Both share one config. Details: CLI and agent skill.
Zotero Agent: chat inside Zotero
A plugin that adds a chat panel to Zotero itself, driven by your own Claude Code, Codex or pi. It knows which item and page you have open and works your library through zotero-cli. Answers cite papers with real zotero:// links, so a click opens the PDF at that page. It ships in the wheel: run zotero-cli plugin for the file and the install steps, or paste the one-paragraph prompt in the docs to your agent and let it do the setup. Details: Zotero Agent plugin.
Documentation
| Guide | What's in it |
|---|---|
| Getting started | Connecting Claude Desktop and Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cherry Studio, Chorus, Autohand, and other MCP clients |
| Configuration | Environment variables, local writes, web and hybrid modes, the SQLite read backend, global search, text extraction, command-line options |
| Semantic search | Embedding models, building and updating the index |
| Tools | Every MCP tool, tool groups (ZOTERO_MCP_TOOLSETS), related items, PDF annotation extraction |
| CLI and agent skill | zotero-cli command reference, --json output, install-skill |
| Zotero Agent plugin | The chat panel inside Zotero: install, first run, agents and sign-in, privacy |
| Docker | Container images and runtime modes |
| Troubleshooting | Common problems and fixes |
| For AI agents | One guide for an agent setting up or using Zotero MCP |
Website: stevenyuyy.com/zotero-mcp · Changelog
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run the tests with uv run pytest tests/. A live integration test plan, meant to be run by Claude against a real library, is in docs/integration-test-plan.md. Changes to the plugin in plugin/ (AGPL-3.0) are accepted on the condition that the maintainer may also release them under other terms, including commercial ones.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed code, fixes, and ideas to Zotero MCP.
Support
Zotero MCP is free and open source.
If it saves you or your lab time, sponsoring helps cover the unglamorous parts: Windows and WSL2 edge cases, Zotero schema changes, group-library support, and the embedding/search infrastructure.
Labs and institutions: the $50 and $200 tiers are meant to be expensable, and include priority triage on the issues affecting your workflow.
License
The MCP server and zotero-cli are MIT (LICENSE). The Zotero Agent plugin in plugin/ is AGPL-3.0-or-later (plugin/LICENSE), the license Zotero itself uses.