Zotero MCP Server

🚀 Zotero MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that enables your MCP clients (such as Anthropic's Claude app, Goose, and possibly vscode Cline) to interact with your local Zotero literature library. This server allows you to programmatically access your Zotero library, search for papers, manage notes, etc.

🚀 Quick Start

📦 Installation

1. Install the dependencies:

pip install -e .

2. Create a .env file in the root directory with your Zotero credentials:

ZOTERO_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
ZOTERO_USER_ID=your_user_id_here

You can obtain your Zotero API key and user ID on Zotero's settings page.

🔌 Integration with Anthropic Desktop App

To integrate with the Anthropic Desktop app, add the following configuration to the ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zotero-mcp-server": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/Users/swairshah/work/research/zotero-mcp",
        "run",
        "python",
        "-m",
        "zotero_mcp.server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

If you encounter an error like this:

{"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"claude-ai","version":"0.1.0"}},"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":0}
  Error: Unexpected argument '--directory' found

Use the following configuration and make sure to run uv venv; source .venv/bin/activate; uv pip install ".[dev]" to ensure the server can run with all dependencies.

{
   "mcpServers": {
      "zotero-mcp-server": {
        "command": "bash",
        "args": [
          "-c",
          "cd /Users/shahswai/personal/zotero-mcp-server && source .venv/bin/activate && python -m zotero_mcp.server"
        ]
      }
    }
  }

💻 Usage Examples

The server allows you to:

• Search for papers by tags
• Get paper details and attached notes
• Add notes to papers
• Request paper summaries