zotero-mcp

zotero-mcp is the Research Workbench's capability-honest stdio adapter for Zotero 7. It uses Zotero's built-in, GET-only local API for reads and the separately installed Research Workbench Zotero extension for authenticated writes. It never opens zotero.sqlite or the Zotero data directory.

The stdio entry supports MCP 2026-07-28's stateless server/discover lifecycle and legacy initialize-based clients. Its static tool catalog is publicly cacheable for five minutes, reducing repeated catalog transfer and prompt churn.

Requirements and setup

• Node.js 20 or newer

• Zotero 7 for live use

• The Research Workbench Zotero extension for write tools

npm install
npm run build
npm test
node dist/src/index.js

Configuration:

• ZOTERO_MCP_BASE_URL defaults to http://127.0.0.1:23119. Only plain-HTTP URLs using the exact loopback hostnames 127.0.0.1, localhost, or [::1] are accepted; userinfo is rejected and redirects are never followed.

• ZOTERO_MCP_TOKEN_FILE defaults to ~/.research-workbench/zotero-bridge.json.

The server always starts and advertises all 15 contracted tools. When Zotero or the extension is unavailable, calls return the shared structured error envelope with an actionable code and message.

Related MCP server: zotio

Capability notes

• Reads are local and read-only.

• Writes are narrow Zotero data-layer operations provided by the extension.

• Moving an item to trash is supported; permanent deletion is not exposed.

• Linked-URL attachments are supported; file-content upload is not.

• The item full-text endpoint is probed only when requested. Zotero on the target machine currently returns 404 for /api/users/0/items/<key>/fulltext, so the tool returns unsupported_capability rather than claiming abstract metadata is full text.

• zotero_health.writeAuth is true only when extension health explicitly confirms the supplied token; the existence of a token file alone is not reported as valid auth.

Tests

npm test is fully offline. A mock HTTP server replays checked-in, synthetic local-API fixtures and covers Zotero-down, token-missing, extension-absent, stale-version, and full-text-unsupported behavior. No automated test writes to a real Zotero library.

License: MIT. See LICENSE.