Zotero MCP Lite

A high-performance Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Zotero with customizable research workflows.

Full Local - No cloud, no API key; runs entirely via Zotero Desktop
Atomic Tools - 9 composable tools; LLM orchestrates as needed
MCP-Native - Works with any MCP client
Extensible - User-editable prompts to match your research style
Easy Deploy - Single command install, auto-detects Zotero

Architecture

flowchart LR
    subgraph MCP [Zotero MCP Lite]
        Read[Read Operations]
        Write[Write Operations]
    end
  
    subgraph Zotero [Zotero Desktop]
        LocalAPI["/api/ endpoint"]
        ConnectorAPI["/connector/ endpoint"]
        SQLite[(zotero.sqlite)]
    end
  
    Read -->|GET| LocalAPI
    Read -->|Direct SQL| SQLite
    Write -->|POST saveItems| ConnectorAPI
    LocalAPI --> SQLite
    ConnectorAPI --> SQLite

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Python 3.10+
Zotero 6 or 7 installed

Step 0: Enable Zotero Local API

The Local API allows third-party applications to communicate with Zotero. This is required.

Steps:

Open Zotero → Edit → Settings (or Preferences on macOS)
Go to Advanced tab
Under Miscellaneous, check "Allow other applications on this computer to communicate with Zotero"
The API will be available at http://localhost:23119/api/

Note: The Local API requires manual enabling (unlike the browser Connector).

Step 1: Install

Recommended:

uv tool install zotero-mcp-lite

Alternative (requires Python 3.10+):

pip install zotero-mcp-lite

Alternative: Install from GitHub or source

# From GitHub (latest development version)
uv tool install "git+https://github.com/xmruuu/zotero-mcp-lite.git"

# From source (for development)
git clone https://github.com/xmruuu/zotero-mcp-lite.git
cd zotero-mcp-lite && uv sync
uv run zotero-mcp setup

# Direct run without install
uvx zotero-mcp-lite serve

Step 2: Setup

zotero-mcp setup

This detects your Zotero installation and configures MCP clients automatically.

Step 3: Connect to MCP Client

Claude Code (one command):

claude mcp add zotero -- zotero-mcp serve

Other MCP clients — add to your MCP config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zotero": {
      "command": "zotero-mcp",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Config file locations: claude_desktop_config.json (Claude Desktop), Settings → MCP (Cursor), ~/.gemini/settings.json (Gemini CLI)

That's it! You're ready to use Zotero with AI assistants.

Features

9 Atomic MCP Tools

Search and Navigation

zotero_search_items - Keyword search with tag filtering
zotero_get_recent - Recently modified/added items (excludes notes by default)
zotero_get_collections - List all collections
zotero_get_collection_items - Items in a collection (excludes notes by default)
zotero_search_annotations - Search all PDF highlights across library

Content Reading

zotero_get_item_metadata - Metadata, authors, abstract, tags
zotero_get_item_children - Attachments, notes, and PDF annotations
zotero_get_item_fulltext - Full text extraction

Writing (via local Connector API)

zotero_create_note - Create note with full formatting support (tables, lists, line breaks)

4 Research Skills (MCP Prompts)

Pre-defined workflows that guide AI through common academic tasks:

Skill	Use Case	What It Does
`knowledge_discovery(query)`	Explore a topic	Searches titles AND your annotations
`literature_review(item_key)`	Deep-dive one paper	Structured analysis from annotations or full text
`comparative_review(item_keys)`	Compare papers	Table-rich synthesis with insights
`bibliography_export(item_keys)`	Prepare citations	APA, IEEE, and BibTeX formats

Works with or without annotations. Fully customizable. See Customizing Skills.

Debugging

Debugging MCP servers can be challenging. Use MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector zotero-mcp serve

This opens a web UI to test tools and prompts interactively.

Technical Notes

Annotations: Direct SQLite query (faster than Web API, works offline)
Cross-platform: Auto-detects Zotero on Windows, macOS, Linux
Architecture: Read via /api/, Write via /connector/, Annotations via SQLite

Customizing Skills

Prompts are fully customizable. Copy from the package defaults and edit:

~/.zotero-mcp/prompts/
├── literature_review.md      # Single paper analysis skill
├── comparative_review.md     # Multi-paper comparison skill
├── knowledge_discovery.md    # Topic exploration skill
└── bibliography_export.md    # Citation export skill

Loading order: User files (~/.zotero-mcp/prompts/) take priority over package defaults.

Edit the .md files to customize analysis sections, add new ones, or change the output format entirely.

Credits

Thanks to @54yyyu for the original zotero-mcp project.

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file.

zotero-mcp-lite