Zotero Toolkit

Tools for Zotero: MCP servers, Zotero plugins and agent skills for reference management and systematic/scoping review workflows.

Built for real review work - screening decisions, exclusion logging, PRISMA record accounting - rather than as a demo.

What's here

Component	Runs where	Status
mcp/zotero-mcp-server	Any MCP client, or as a standalone CLI	v1.2.0
plugins/pdf-file-attacher (AutoAttach)	Inside the Zotero desktop app (.xpi)	v1.0.1
agent-skills/	Loaded by an AI agent	planned
core/	Shared libraries	not yet needed
docs/	Cross-package documentation	in progress

zotero-toolkit/
├── mcp/                      # MCP servers (npm workspaces)
│   └── zotero-mcp-server/    # 24 tools + 3 prompts over the Zotero Web API, plus a CLI
├── plugins/                  # Zotero .xpi add-ons, using Zotero's internal API
├── agent-skills/             # research workflows for AI agents
├── core/                     # shared libraries, once >1 package needs them
└── docs/                     # cross-package documentation

AutoAttach matches downloaded PDFs to the items you already have by reading what is inside each file — DOI, arXiv ID, embedded metadata, first-page text — rather than comparing filenames. Every match carries the evidence it was made on, and nothing is written until you confirm:

The AutoAttach review dialog: 171 PDFs scanned against 268 items, 146 matches, each row showing its score and the evidence behind it

It runs inside Zotero, and every command ends in that same reviewed dialog:

The review dialog open over the Zotero library window

The item context menu, with the online commands carrying a globe icon and an Online label

Two different integration points, deliberately:

• MCP servers talk to the Zotero Web API over HTTPS. They work from any machine against your synced library and need no desktop app, but only see items that have synced.
• Plugins run inside Zotero using its internal API. They work offline and can touch local files and attachments, but must be installed in the app.

Quick start

The MCP server is the finished piece. Requires Node.js 18+.

git clone https://github.com/adolinjonathan-bot/zotero-toolkit.git
cd zotero-toolkit
npm install
npm run build
npm run verify     # 7 checks, no credentials needed

Then follow mcp/zotero-mcp-server/README.md to create a Zotero API key and connect a client - Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Zed, Continue, VS Code, LM Studio, or a local open-source model.

It also runs as a plain CLI with no AI involved at all:

node mcp/zotero-mcp-server/dist/cli.js search "youth employability" --limit 10

Repository conventions

• npm install once at the root; workspaces cover mcp/* and core/*. agent-skills/ is documentation, not code, and is deliberately excluded.
• npm run build and npm run verify fan out across every package.
• Build output (dist/, build/, *.xpi) is not committed. Plugin .xpi files ship as GitHub Release assets so each download traces to a source commit.
• Every package carries its own README; this file stays an index.

Licence

MIT - see LICENSE.

Credits

Initial implementation generated with Claude, then debugged, hardened and tested against a live research library.