Search Zotero items
zotero_search_itemsSearch or list items in a Zotero library by title, author, year, or full text. Supports boolean filters for item type and tags, pagination, and incremental queries.
Instructions
Search or list items in a Zotero library or collection. Quick search via q (qmode: titleCreatorYear=default, matches title/creator/year only; everything=also searches notes & attachment full text). For presence checks ("is X in my library?"): a default-mode q that matches nothing auto-retries once in everything mode, so terms appearing only inside PDF text don't false-negative — pin qmode explicitly to disable. An empty everything result is reported as strong-but-not-conclusive, since un-indexed/scanned/un-synced PDFs aren't full-text searchable. Also supports boolean itemType filters (use || for OR, repeat or && for AND, leading - to negate, e.g. "journalArticle || book", "-attachment"), boolean tag filters (same syntax; escape a literal leading hyphen as "-"), since (version) for incremental queries, sort/direction, and limit/start paging. Set response_format to "detailed" to also return technical fields (version, tags, collections, DOI, url) needed before chaining a write; the default "concise" returns high-signal projections (key, itemType, title, creators, date). Reads are served from the fast desktop local API when available, otherwise the cloud Web API. Returns totalResults so you can tell when to page rather than assuming you saw everything. For conceptual/"papers about X" queries by meaning rather than exact fields, use zotero_semantic_search instead.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| q | No | Quick/full-text search string. | |
| tag | No | Boolean tag filter, e.g. "to-read && 2024". | |
| top | No | Only top-level items (exclude child notes/attachments). | |
| sort | No | ||
| limit | No | Max items (default 25, max 100). | |
| qmode | No | ||
| since | No | Return items modified after this library version. | |
| start | No | ||
| itemType | No | Boolean itemType filter, e.g. "journalArticle || book". | |
| direction | No | ||
| library_id | No | ||
| library_type | No | ||
| collectionKey | No | Restrict to a collection by key. | |
| includeTrashed | No | ||
| response_format | No | Detail level of returned items. |