Model Context Protocol server for Zotero

This project is a python server that implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for Zotero, giving you access to your Zotero library within AI assistants. It is intended to implement a small but maximally useful set of interactions with Zotero for use with MCP clients.

Features

This MCP server provides the following tools:

• zotero_search_items: Search for items in your Zotero library using a text query
• zotero_item_metadata: Get the complete metadata for a specific Zotero item, covering every populated field grouped into publication details, identifiers, timestamps, and library information
• zotero_item_fulltext: Get the full text of a specific Zotero item (i.e. PDF contents)

These can be discovered and accessed through any MCP client or through the MCP Inspector.

Each tool returns formatted text containing relevant information from your Zotero items, and AI assistants such as Claude can use them sequentially, searching for items then retrieving their metadata or text content.

Installation

This server can either run against either a local API offered by the Zotero desktop application) or through the Zotero Web API. The local API can be a bit more responsive, but requires that the Zotero app be running on the same computer with the API enabled. To enable the local API, do the following steps:

1. Open Zotero and open "Zotero Settings"
2. Under the "Advanced" tab, check the box that says "Allow other applications on this computer to communicate with Zotero".

To use the Zotero Web API, you'll need to create an API key and find your Library ID (usually your User ID) in your Zotero account settings here: https://www.zotero.org/settings/keys

These are the available configuration options:

• ZOTERO_LOCAL=true: Use the local Zotero API (default: false, see note below)
• ZOTERO_API_KEY: Your Zotero API key (not required for the local API)
• ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID: Your Zotero library ID (your user ID for user libraries, not required for the local API)
• ZOTERO_LIBRARY_TYPE: The type of library (user or group, default: user)

uvx with Local Zotero API

To use this with Claude Desktop and a direct python install with uvx, add the following to the mcpServers configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zotero": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["zotero-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "ZOTERO_LOCAL": "true",
        "ZOTERO_API_KEY": "",
        "ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID": ""
      }
    }
  }
}

The @latest specifier is optional and will pull the latest version when new ones are available. If you don't have uvx installed you can use pipx run instead, or clone this repository locally and use the instructions in Development below.

Docker with Zotero Web API

If you want to run this MCP server in a Docker container, you can use the following configuration, inserting your API key and library ID: