MCP server · Research
Zotero MCP server (Zoteus)
by oscardvs
Lets your AI search your Zotero library, pull PDF passages with page numbers, and format citations.
Zoteus is a helper that connects your AI assistant to your Zotero library, the place where you keep your research papers and references. Once it is set up, you can ask your AI to find papers, quote passages from your PDFs, and build citations, all from your own collection. It is handy for students, researchers, and anyone who keeps a lot of reading in Zotero.
What is an MCP server? The 30-second version
On its own, your AI can only chat with you. It cannot see your Zotero library or the PDFs on your computer. An MCP server is a small helper program that gives your AI a new skill or a connection to an app. Zoteus is that helper for Zotero: it lets your AI look things up in your library and, when you ask, make changes there for you.
What this MCP server does
You ask your AI a question, like finding papers about a topic or pulling a quote from one of your PDFs. The AI passes your request to Zoteus, which talks to your Zotero library, either through the Zotero desktop app on your computer or through Zotero's online service. Zoteus finds the matching items, passages, or citation details and sends them back to the AI. The AI then shows you the answer in the chat, with page numbers and formatted references where relevant.
Click to zoomWhat you can do with it
- Search your Zotero library by keyword or by meaning
- Pull passages from your PDFs with page numbers
- Format citations in any citation style
- Add a paper to your library by its DOI or arXiv id
- Highlight and annotate PDFs
- Import a bibliography file and find duplicates
- Look up a paper's references and citing works
Try asking your AI
- “Find papers in my Zotero library about climate policy and summarize the main arguments”
- “Quote the passage from my Smith 2020 PDF where they discuss their method, with the page number”
- “Add this paper to my library by its DOI: 10.1234/example”
- “Format a bibliography in APA style for the five papers I just found”
What it gives back to you
You get back answers in the chat: lists of matching papers, quoted passages with page numbers, formatted citations, or confirmation that an item was added or changed. For PDFs, it can also show a page as an image so your AI can look at a figure or table. When it writes to your library, it tells you what it did.
Before you start
What you need
- A Zotero account and the Zotero desktop app running on your computer
- An MCP client like Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or ChatGPT (paid plan for web)
- A Zotero API key from zotero.org/settings/keys for sync, group libraries, and edits when the app is closed
Good to know
It can add, edit, tag, and trash items in your Zotero library, so check before confirming changes, especially permanent deletions.
Install it with your AI
Add Zotero MCP server (Zoteus) to your AI, no technical skills needed
You don't install anything by hand. You copy one prompt, paste it into an AI that can work on your computer, and it checks, installs and connects the server for you, asking you when it needs something.
Sign in to get the install prompt
Members get a ready-made prompt that lets the Claude desktop app check Zotero MCP server (Zoteus), install it and connect it for them, step by step. You don't need any technical skills: you copy, paste and answer a few questions. Your connected AI can also find and install any of the 4,066 MCP servers here for you.
Who it's for
Researchers, students, and anyone who keeps a large collection of papers and references in Zotero and wants their AI to help find, quote, and cite them.
