Import items by identifier or URL
zotero_importResolve bibliographic identifiers or web pages to Zotero items and optionally save them to your Zotero library, using a running desktop app or cloud API.
Instructions
Resolve bibliographic metadata to Zotero item-data and optionally save it to your library. action: "by_identifier" resolves a DOI, ISBN, PMID, arXiv id, or ADS bibcode (set identifier); action: "by_url" scrapes a web page (set url) and may return multiple choices to pick from. Set save_to_library:true (and optionally collection_key) to persist the resolved items — saved into the running Zotero desktop app when available, otherwise via the cloud Web API (requires ZOTERO_API_KEY); otherwise the resolved metadata is returned without saving. When a Zotero translation-server is reachable (ZOTEUS_TRANSLATION_SERVER_URL, default http://127.0.0.1:1969) it is the primary path; if none is running, DOI and arXiv ids fall back to built-in resolution (OpenAlex/Crossref and the arXiv API respectively) — the result then carries a source field ("scholar" or "arxiv"). ISBN/PMID/bibcode and web URLs require a translation-server.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| url | No | Web page URL to scrape (needs a translation-server). | |
| action | Yes | ||
| attach_url | No | File URL (e.g. an arXiv PDF) to download and attach as a stored attachment to the (single) imported item when saving to the desktop app. | |
| identifier | No | DOI (10.…), arXiv id (YYMM.NNNNN), ISBN, PMID, or ADS bibcode. | |
| library_id | No | ||
| attach_title | No | Title for the attached file, e.g. "Full Text PDF". | |
| library_type | No | ||
| collection_key | No | Collection to add saved items to: an 8-char collection key or a Zotero treeViewID like "C20". | |
| save_to_library | No | Persist the resolved items — into the running Zotero desktop app when available, otherwise the cloud Web API (needs a cloud key). |