What is Mcp Pyzotero

mcp-pyzotero is a Model Control Protocol (MCP) connector that integrates your local Zotero library with Claude, allowing direct read access to your Zotero library through Claude’s Desktop interface.

Use cases

Use cases include managing academic references, retrieving research papers, and facilitating collaboration among researchers by accessing shared Zotero libraries.

How to use

To use mcp-pyzotero, install the required dependencies, clone the repository, activate the virtual environment, enable the local API in Zotero 7, and add the server to your local Claude installation.

Key features

Key features include listing all collections, retrieving items from specific collections, obtaining detailed information about papers, searching the entire library, and accessing recently added papers.

Where to use

mcp-pyzotero is primarily used in academic and research environments where Zotero is employed for reference management and citation.

Zotero MCP Connector

A Model Control Protocol (MCP) connector for integrating your local Zotero with Claude.
This enables direct read access to your local Zotero library through Claude’s Desktop interface.
It depends on the ability to access a local web-api in Zotero 7.

This was inspired by a repository using Node.js and the web api: mcp-zotero.
This builds on the shoulders of the fantastic pyzotero library.

Installation

Information about Claude Desktop interacting with MCPs can be found here.

1. Use uv. Installation instructions can be found here.

2. Checkout the git project to local space and activate the virtual environment inside:

git clone https://github.com/gyger/mcp-pyzotero.git
cd mcp-pyzotero
uv sync

3. Enable the local API in Zotero 7:
   

4. Add the server to your local Claude installation:

uv run mcp install zotero.py

Configuration

The connector is configured to work with local Zotero installations and currently only user libraries are supported.
By default it uses the userid 0, but you can also set the environment variable ZOTERO_USER_ID if needed:

uv run mcp install zotero.py -v ZOTERO_USER_ID=0

Available Functions

The connector provides the following functions:

• get_collections(): List all collections in your Zotero library
• get_collection_items(collection_key): Get all items in a specific collection
• get_item_details(item_key): Get detailed information about a specific paper, including abstract
• search_library(query): Search your entire Zotero library
• get_recent(limit=10): Get recently added papers to your library

This functionality should be extended in the future.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Local Zotero installation
• Claude Desktop

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please visit the GitHub repository to:

• Report issues
• Submit pull requests
• Suggest improvements

License

MIT