Zotero MCP Plugin by cookjohn: Setup for Claude, Cursor and Other Apps

• Lists your Zotero libraries

  Returns the personal and group libraries your Zotero app has, with basic details for each.

  Try: “Which Zotero libraries do I have?”

  Read · get_libraries

• Finds items in your library by many filters

  Searches titles, authors, years, tags and item types with AND/OR logic and relevance scoring, and pages through results.

  Try: “Find papers from 2022 to 2024 about graph neural networks in my library.”

  Read · search_library

• Finds a library by name

  Looks up libraries by name, which helps when you have several group libraries.

  Try: “Find my lab group library.”

  Read · search_libraries

• Finds highlights and notes by color or tag

  Searches PDF highlights, notes and other annotations by text, color or tag and ranks the best matches.

  Try: “Show my yellow highlights that mention sample size.”

  Read · search_annotations

• Shows full details for one item

  Returns the complete record for one item: authors, date, DOI, tags, attachments and more.

  Try: “Show the details for item key ABCD1234.”

  Read · get_item_details

• Reads the highlights on specific items

  Returns the annotations and comments you made on named items, filtered by color or tag, with your exact wording.

  Try: “Quote my highlights on the Smith 2021 paper.”

  Read · get_annotations

• Reads the text of PDFs, notes and abstracts

  Extracts full text from PDFs, attachments, notes, abstracts and saved web pages. Text from scanned PDFs may contain errors.

  Try: “Read the full text of the Smith 2021 PDF and summarize the methods.”

  Read · get_content

• Lists your collections

  Returns your collections (folders) in a paged list.

  Try: “List all my collections.”

  Read · get_collections

• Finds collections by name

  Searches collection names for a keyword.

  Try: “Find my collection about thesis chapters.”

  Read · search_collections

• Shows details of one collection

  Returns the details of one collection by its key.

  Try: “Tell me about the collection with key XYZ123.”

  Read · get_collection_details

• Lists the items in a collection

  Returns the items inside one collection, with paging.

  Try: “What papers are in my Literature Review collection?”

  Read · get_collection_items

• Lists folders inside a collection

  Returns the subcollections of a collection, and can go all the way down.

  Try: “Show the whole folder tree under Thesis.”

  Read · get_subcollections

• Creates a new collection

  Makes a new collection, optionally inside a parent collection. Needs Write Operations turned on in the plugin.

  Try: “Create a collection called Chapter 3 Sources.”

  Write · create_collection

• Renames or moves a collection

  Renames a collection or moves it under another parent, or to the top level. Needs Write Operations turned on in the plugin.

  Try: “Rename the collection Misc to Reading Queue.”

  Write · update_collection

• Deletes a collection

  Deletes a collection. Its items stay in your library unless the call asks to trash them too. Needs Write Operations turned on in the plugin.

  Try: “Delete my empty collection Old Drafts.”

  Delete · delete_collection

• Adds items to a collection

  Puts one or more items into a collection by key. Needs Write Operations turned on in the plugin.

  Try: “Add these three papers to my Methods collection.”

  Write · add_items_to_collection

• Takes items out of a collection

  Removes items from a collection without deleting them from your library. Needs Write Operations turned on in the plugin.

  Try: “Remove the Jones 2019 paper from the Reading Queue collection.”

  Write · remove_items_from_collection

• Searches inside the text of your PDFs

  Finds words across the content of your documents and returns snippets with surrounding context.

  Try: “Which of my PDFs mention "difference-in-differences"?”

  Read · search_fulltext

• Gets an item abstract

  Returns the abstract of one item as text or JSON.

  Try: “Show me the abstract of the Smith 2021 paper.”

  Read · get_item_abstract

• Finds papers by meaning, not just keywords

  Matches your question to your library by concept using embedding vectors, including across languages. The plugin can turn this off.

  Try: “Find papers in my library about how people trust automated systems.”

  Read · semantic_search

• Finds papers similar to one you pick

  Returns items that are conceptually close to a given item.

  Try: “Find papers similar to the Smith 2021 paper.”

  Read · find_similar

• Checks the semantic search index

  Reports whether semantic search is ready and index statistics.

  Try: “Is my semantic search index up to date?”

  Read · semantic_status

• Browses the cached full-text store

  Lists, searches, fetches and gives stats on the plugin cache of extracted PDF text. It only reads.

  Try: “How many documents are in the full-text cache?”

  Read · fulltext_database

• Creates or edits a note

  Creates a note, replaces its content, or appends to it. Markdown is converted. Needs Write Operations turned on in the plugin.

  Try: “Add a note to the Smith 2021 paper summarizing its main finding.”

  Write · write_note

• Adds or removes tags

  Adds, removes or replaces tags on items. Needs Write Operations turned on in the plugin.

  Try: “Tag these five papers with "to-read".”

  Write · write_tag

• Edits item fields

  Changes title, abstract, date, DOI, authors and other fields on an item. Needs Write Operations turned on in the plugin.

  Try: “Fix the publication year of this item to 2020.”

  Write · write_metadata

• Creates items or imports a file

  Creates a new item, moves a stray attachment under a parent item, or imports a local file as an attachment. Needs Write Operations turned on in the plugin.

  Try: “Import ~/Papers/draft.pdf and attach it to the Smith 2021 item.”

  Write · write_item

• Adds papers by DOI, arXiv ID, ISBN or PMID

  Uses Zotero own lookup to add items from identifiers, including metadata and attachment download. Needs Write Operations turned on in the plugin.

  Try: “Add arXiv 1706.03762 to my library.”

  Write · add_by_identifier

Watch out for

• Turning on Write Operations lets it edit and delete

  With the switch on, the assistant can change notes, tags and metadata, move items between collections and delete a collection. Leave it off unless you need edits. github.com

• A collection delete can trash its items

  delete_collection keeps the items by default but can send them to the Zotero trash when asked. Zotero trash is recoverable until you empty it. github.com

• Remote access setting opens it to your network

  If you tick "Allow remote access", the server listens on every network interface instead of only your computer, and it has no sign-in. Keep it off. github.com

• Semantic search can send text to an embedding API

  Semantic search uses an OpenAI-style or Ollama embedding service. With a cloud service, text from your library goes to that provider; Ollama keeps it on your machine. github.com

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