MCP Server

Pyzotero 1.15.2 ships an optional Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes your local Zotero library and Semantic Scholar integration as tools for LLM clients (e.g., Claude Desktop).

Requirements

• Zotero 7+ for local reads, Zotero 10+ for local writes, with local API access enabled:
• Zotero → Settings → Advanced → Allow other applications on this computer to communicate with Zotero
• Python 3.10+ (required by pyzotero[mcp])

Zotero-library tools read the local desktop API without a key. Semantic Scholar tools call an external network API. The server starts read-only; local write tools require explicit enablement and a separate local authorization key.

Installation

# In a project
uv add "pyzotero[mcp]==1.15.2"

# As a standalone tool
uv tool install "pyzotero[mcp]==1.15.2"

Run without installing:

uvx --from "pyzotero[mcp]==1.15.2" pyzotero-mcp

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

**If pyzotero-mcp is installed:**

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zotero": {
      "command": "pyzotero-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Without installing (via uvx):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zotero": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "pyzotero[mcp]==1.15.2", "pyzotero-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Zotero Library Tools

Semantic Scholar Tools

Semantic Scholar tools can optionally check whether results already exist in your local Zotero library (check_library parameter, enabled by default).

MCP vs Web API vs CLI

For remote library management from Python, use the Web API client documented in the other reference files. Local library searches can work without external network access. Semantic Scholar lookups always need the network.

Tool Arguments and Results

search(query='', fulltext=False, itemtype='', collection='', tag='', limit=50, offset=0) returns JSON text with count and items. For MCP, tag='reviewed,unread' means AND; itemtype='journalArticle || book' means OR. This differs from the CLI's repeated flags. Parse the tool's JSON text before using fields; failed calls can return an error object instead.

Semantic Scholar tools return papers with counts and optional local-library annotations, not raw Zotero items. The installed implementation uses:

Host: https://api.semanticscholar.org. Pyzotero 1.15.2's integration does not send a Semantic Scholar API key or expose an API-key option, so do not imply a Zotero key authenticates these requests. Handle public-service rate limits. check_library=False avoids a local DOI-index scan. DOI absence and normalization can make local-library matching incomplete.

The MCP tools do not expose an offset for citations/references/search and are not exhaustive literature search tools. Citation/reference total in the helper reflects the returned page, not a global count. min_citations filters fetched results locally. Leave the MCP sort argument empty: the wrapper sends it to relevance /paper/search, whose current official schema does not support sorting. Do not promise globally citation-ranked results.

Enabling Writes

For an explicitly intended local write workflow, install both extras and obtain a persistent key:

uv tool install "pyzotero[cli,mcp]==1.15.2"
pyzotero authorize --app-name "Research assistant"
# Choose Always Allow in Zotero if persistent access is intended.
pyzotero-mcp --enable-writes

The server reads the stored key/server-ID pair created by the CLI. Alternatively, PYZOTERO_LOCAL_API_KEY and PYZOTERO_LOCAL_SERVER_ID override the file. Keep those values private. With --enable-writes, additional tools are registered: list_item_fields, create_item, update_item, add_tags, create_collection, add_to_collection, remove_from_collection, move_to_collection, and add_attachment. Attachment paths must be absolute; files are copied into Zotero storage.

delete_item is registered only with --enable-deletes, which also enables writes. It permanently erases items and can propagate via sync; it does not move them to trash.

Sources: Pyzotero MCP documentation, Graph schema, recommendations schema.