MCP Zotero

A Model Context Protocol server for Zotero integration that allows Claude to interact with your Zotero library.

Setup

1. Get your Zotero credentials:

bash # First, create an API key at https://www.zotero.org/settings/keys # Then use it to get your user ID: curl -H "Zotero-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" https://api.zotero.org/keys/current

The response will look like:

json { "userID": 123456, "username": "your_username", "access": { "user": { "library": true, "files": true, "notes": true, "write": true } } }

The userID value is what you need.

1. Set environment variables:

bash export ZOTERO_API_KEY="your-api-key" export ZOTERO_USER_ID="user-id-from-curl"

1. Verify your credentials:

bash # Test that your credentials work: curl -H "Zotero-API-Key: $ZOTERO_API_KEY" \ "https://api.zotero.org/users/$ZOTERO_USER_ID/collections"

You should see your collections list in the response.

1. Install and run:

```bash # Install globally (recommended) npm install -g mcp-zotero mcp-zotero

# Or run directly with npx npx mcp-zotero ```

Integration with Claude Desktop

To use this server with Claude Desktop, add the following to your Claude Desktop configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zotero": {
      "command": "mcp-zotero",
      "env": {
        "ZOTERO_API_KEY": YOUR_API_KEY,
        "ZOTERO_USER_ID": YOUR_USER_ID
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

• get_collections: List all collections in your library
• get_collection_items: Get items in a specific collection
• get_item_details: Get detailed information about a paper
• search_library: Search your entire library
• get_recent: Get recently added papers

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues:

1. Verify your environment variables are set:

bash echo $ZOTERO_API_KEY echo $ZOTERO_USER_ID

1. Check the installation:

bash npm list -g mcp-zotero

1. Try reinstalling: bash npm uninstall -g mcp-zotero npm install -g mcp-zotero