Zotero MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Zotero, enabling LLM-powered tools like Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor to interact with your academic library.

Features

Tools

• search_papers - Search papers by keyword, title, or author

• add_arxiv_paper - Add papers to Zotero by arXiv ID or URL

• update_metadata - Update metadata fields of existing items

• get_item - Get detailed information about a specific item

• get_collection_items - List items in a collection

• get_recent_items - Get recently added items

Resources

• zotero://recent - Recently added items

• zotero://collection/{key} - Items in a specific collection (dynamic)

Prompts

• literature_review - Generate structured literature review template from collection papers

• paper_summary - Summarize a specific paper with structured analysis

Related MCP server: Research MCP

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+

• Zotero account with API access

• Get your API key at https://www.zotero.org/settings/keys

Installation

git clone https://github.com/awsl5714/zotero-mcp-server.git
cd zotero-mcp-server
pip install -e .

Configuration

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Zotero credentials
export ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID=your-library-id
export ZOTERO_API_KEY=your-api-key
export ZOTERO_LIBRARY_TYPE=user  # or "group"

Claude Desktop Integration

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zotero": {
      "command": "zotero-mcp",
      "env": {
        "ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID": "your-library-id",
        "ZOTERO_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code Integration

Add to your Claude Code MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zotero": {
      "command": "zotero-mcp",
      "env": {
        "ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID": "your-library-id",
        "ZOTERO_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Usage Examples

Once connected, you can use natural language in Claude:

• "Search my Zotero library for papers about transformer architectures"

• "Add this arXiv paper to my library: 2301.00234"

• "Write a literature review based on my 'Deep Learning' collection"

• "Update the tags for paper KEY123 to include 'NLP' and 'attention'"

Tech Stack

Project Structure

src/zotero_mcp/
├── server.py        # MCP server with Tools, Resources, Prompts
├── zotero_client.py # Zotero API wrapper
└── config.py        # Environment-based configuration

License

MIT