zotero_update_item
Update an existing Zotero item's metadata by key, changing fields, tags, collections, or creators. Supports incremental tag and collection edits to avoid replacing full lists.
Instructions
Update metadata on an existing Zotero item by key. Only what you pass is changed. fields: {name: value} of metadata to set (a JSON object string is accepted). Names may be snake_case (title, date, doi, url, abstract, publication_title, access_date, short_title, book_title, citation_key, item_type, place, extra, volume, issue, pages, publisher, issn, isbn, edition, language) or any raw Zotero API field name. An unknown name fails the call and lists the valid ones; a name that is not valid for this item's type is reported as skipped. item_type migrates the item (overlapping fields kept, type-specific ones dropped). TAG SEMANTICS (easy to get wrong): tags REPLACES the whole tag list; add_tags/remove_tags are incremental and preferred. They are mutually exclusive with tags. collections (keys) and collection_names likewise REPLACE membership — pass collections=[] to clear it; for incremental moves use zotero_set_item_collections. creators: full replacement list of {creatorType, firstName, lastName} objects. Requires a writable library (fails in local-only mode). To edit notes use zotero_manage_note. Example: zotero_update_item(item_key='RTKZQI8E', fields={'doi': '10.1145/3708319'}, add_tags=['reviewed']).
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| tags | No | ||
| fields | No | mapping (or JSON object string) of field name -> value. Names may be snake_case aliases (``publication_title``, ``short_title``, ``citation_key``) or raw Zotero API keys (``publicationTitle``). ``place`` is the publication city (e.g. ``"New York"``) and is valid on book, bookSection, thesis, manuscript, report and conferencePaper. ``citation_key`` writes Zotero's native ``data.citationKey`` (the BetterBibTeX citation key); BBT auto-pins from metadata on creation and provides no programmatic refresh path in 9.x, so a direct write here is the only programmatic remediation for malformed pinned keys. ``item_type`` migrates the item across types: overlapping fields are preserved and type-specific fields that do not map are dropped. | |
| add_tags | No | ||
| creators | No | full replacement creators list (also accepted as ``fields['creators']``). | |
| item_key | Yes | 8-character Zotero item key of the item to update. | |
| collections | No | ||
| remove_tags | No | ||
| collection_names | No |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| result | Yes |