A professional research assistant that automates saving academic papers, metadata, and AI-generated insights directly to your Zotero library.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install zotero-scholar
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install zotero-scholar using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is Zotero Scholar?
Zotero Scholar is a specialized literature management assistant designed to bridge the gap between AI-driven research discovery and permanent reference storage. As part of the Openclaw Skills ecosystem, it allows developers and researchers to programmatically push paper metadata, source links, and AI-generated insights into their Zotero collections.
By leveraging the Zotero API, this skill eliminates the manual data entry typically required when organizing academic documents. It provides a structured way to maintain a high-quality database of research materials, ensuring that abstracts, tags, and custom summaries are perfectly synchronized and searchable across all devices.
Zotero Scholar Use Cases
- Automatically archiving research papers discovered during AI-guided browsing sessions.
- Enriching Zotero entries with concise, AI-generated insights and key takeaways.
- Bulk importing academic citations with proper tagging for specific research projects.
- Maintaining a deduplicated library by tracking paper source URLs automatically.
How Zotero Scholar Works
- The skill authenticates with the Zotero API using the ZOTERO_CREDENTIALS environment variable.
- It processes input parameters including the paper title, author list, and source URL.
- The system checks the existing library to prevent duplicate entries based on the provided URL.
- Metadata such as the abstract and custom AI-generated summaries are formatted for the Zotero schema.
- The skill creates the item in your library, applying relevant tags and source links for immediate access.
Zotero Scholar Setup
To get started with this skill, ensure you have the required package manager and credentials configured:
# Install the required uv package manager
brew install uv
# Set up your Zotero credentials (format: userid:apiKey)
export ZOTERO_CREDENTIALS="1234567:your_secret_api_key"
# Execute the script to save a paper
uv run scripts/save_paper.py --title "Example Paper" --authors "John Doe" --url "https://arxiv.org/abs/..."
Zotero Scholar Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill organizes data within your Zotero library using the following mapping:
| Parameter | Zotero Field Mapping | Description |
|---|---|---|
--title |
Item Title | The primary title of the publication. |
--authors |
Creator/Author | Comma-separated list of authors. |
--url |
URL | Link to the source for deduplication. |
--abstract |
Abstract Note | The full summary of the paper. |
--summary |
Notes | AI-generated insights or quick takeaways. |
--tags |
Tags | Categorical labels for filtering. |
Zotero Scholar Advanced Features
- Smart Deduplication: Automatically detects and skips papers already present in your library via URL matching.
- AI Insight Integration: Supports custom summary fields to store distilled knowledge alongside original abstracts.
- Batch Processing: Designed for use within CLI pipelines to handle multiple papers in a single execution session.
- Flexible Tagging: Allows for dynamic organization based on the context of the Openclaw Skills research session.
SKILL.md
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