zotero_update_item
Update an existing Zotero item's metadata (title, creators, date, etc.) by item key. Add or remove tags incrementally without replacing the entire tag list.
Instructions
Update metadata on an existing Zotero item by key. Only fields you pass are modified; unspecified fields are left alone. TAG SEMANTICS (easy to get wrong): tags REPLACES the entire tag list. To add tags without touching existing ones, use add_tags. To remove specific tags, use remove_tags. These three are mutually exclusive — prefer add_tags/remove_tags for incremental edits. Similarly, collections/collection_names REPLACE the item's collection memberships (pass collections=[] to clear all memberships); for incremental moves use zotero_manage_collections instead. item_key: 8-character Zotero item key of the item to update. Editable fields include: title, creators, date, publisher, place, publication_title, volume, issue, pages, DOI, ISBN, ISSN, url, language, abstract, short_title, edition, book_title, extra, citation_key, item_type. To migrate an item across types (e.g., journalArticle → book), pass item_type with a valid Zotero item-type vocabulary value; overlapping fields are preserved and type-specific fields that do not map to the target type are dropped. Requires a writable library (web API key or hybrid mode); fails in local-only mode. To edit notes use zotero_update_note, not this. Example: zotero_update_item(item_key='RTKZQI8E', add_tags=['reviewed'], doi='10.1145/3708319').
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| item_key | Yes | 8-character Zotero item key of the item to update. | |
| title | No | ||
| creators | No | ||
| date | No | ||
| access_date | No | ||
| publication_title | No | ||
| abstract | No | ||
| tags | No | ||
| add_tags | No | ||
| remove_tags | No | ||
| collections | No | ||
| collection_names | No | ||
| doi | No | ||
| url | No | ||
| extra | No | ||
| volume | No | ||
| issue | No | ||
| pages | No | ||
| publisher | No | ||
| place | No | Publication place (city), e.g., 'New York' or 'Cambridge, MA'. | |
| issn | No | ||
| language | No | ||
| short_title | No | ||
| edition | No | ||
| isbn | No | ||
| book_title | No | ||
| citation_key | No | BetterBibTeX / Zotero native citation key. Writes to data.citationKey. Useful when BBT auto-pinned the key from incomplete metadata and the programmatic refresh path is blocked (see https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-better-bibtex/issues/3522). | |
| item_type | No |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| result | Yes |