zotero-translator-mcp-server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that wraps the Zotero Translation Server, enabling LLMs and AI agents to extract bibliographic metadata from URLs, DOIs, ISBNs, and other identifiers.

Uses the same translation engine as the Zotero browser connector — no Zotero desktop client required.

Prerequisites

A running Zotero Translation Server instance.

Quick start with Docker

docker pull zotero/translation-server
docker run -d -p 1969:1969 --rm --name translation-server zotero/translation-server

Or from source

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/zotero/translation-server.git
cd translation-server
npm install
npm start

Installation

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport stdio --scope user zotero-translator -- npx -y zotero-translator-mcp-server

Claude Desktop / VS Code / other MCP clients

Add to your MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zotero-translator": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "zotero-translator-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ZOTERO_TRANSLATION_SERVER_URL": "http://localhost:1969"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools

zotero_translate_url

Extract bibliographic metadata from a webpage URL using Zotero's translation engine.

Input:  { "url": "https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642743" }
Output: Zotero JSON array with title, authors, DOI, abstract, etc.

zotero_search_identifier

Look up metadata by DOI, ISBN, PMID, or arXiv ID.

Input:  { "identifier": "10.1145/3613904.3642743" }
Output: Zotero JSON array with resolved metadata

zotero_export_bibliography

Convert Zotero JSON to BibTeX, RIS, CSL-JSON, and 13 other formats.

Input:  { "items": "[...]", "format": "bibtex" }
Output: Formatted BibTeX string

Supported formats: bibtex, biblatex, bookmarks, coins, csljson, csv, endnote_xml, evernote, mods, rdf_bibliontology, rdf_dc, rdf_zotero, refer, ris, tei, wikipedia

zotero_import_bibliography

Convert BibTeX, RIS, or other formats to Zotero JSON.

Input:  { "data": "@article{seo2024, title={...}, ...}" }
Output: Zotero JSON array

Configuration

License

AGPL-3.0-only — same license as the Zotero Translation Server it wraps.

Acknowledgments

This project wraps the Zotero Translation Server by the Corporation for Digital Scholarship.