A comprehensive integration for managing Zotero personal and group libraries through AI-driven automation.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install zotero-skill
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-skill 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?
This skill provides a robust interface for interacting with Zotero accounts programmatically. By leveraging the pyzotero client, it allows AI agents to perform complex library management tasks that traditionally required manual effort. As part of the ecosystem of Openclaw Skills, this tool bridges the gap between AI coding assistants and academic research workflows, enabling seamless citation management and document organization. Users can securely connect their personal or group libraries to automate the ingestion and retrieval of scholarly metadata, making it an essential addition to any research-oriented AI toolkit.
Zotero Use Cases
- Searching across personal and group libraries for specific research papers using titles, authors, or tags.
- Automatically adding detailed notes or research observations to specific Zotero items.
- Uploading local PDF documents as attachments to existing library entries to centralize documentation.
- Bulk updating metadata for multiple citations to maintain consistent bibliographic standards.
- Creating new journal or book entries in shared group libraries for collaborative research projects.
How Zotero Works
- The skill initializes by resolving credentials from environment variables or command-line arguments, prioritizing security through Openclaw Skills protocols.
- Upon receiving a natural language trigger, the AI agent maps the request to specific pyzotero API functions such as search_items or create_item.
- For search queries, the skill parses parameters like title, author, or tags and retrieves the relevant items with support for sorting and pagination.
- For write operations, the system enforces safety checks, requiring explicit confirmation flags or dry-runs for destructive actions like item deletion.
- Attachments are processed via multi-step API calls to ensure parent-child relationships and file integrity are maintained during the upload process.
Zotero Setup
To get started with this among your Openclaw Skills, follow these essential steps:
- Obtain your Zotero API key and User ID from your Zotero account settings.
- Configure your environment variables to allow the agent to authenticate:
export ZOTERO_API_KEY="your_api_key"
export ZOTERO_USER_ID="your_user_id"
export ZOTERO_GROUP_ID="your_group_id" # Optional for group access
- Run the provided installation script to set up the Python environment and dependencies:
bash scripts/install.sh
Zotero Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill organizes data using standard Zotero schemas and local logging for auditability. Detailed organization includes:
| Data Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Item Metadata | Includes standard fields such as title, creators (authors), date, DOI, ISBN, and publication title. |
| Attachments | Managed as child items linked to parent entries, supporting both local PDFs and external URLs. |
| Logs | Operation history is stored in ~/.config/zotero-skill/logs/operations.log (omitting sensitive keys). |
| Configuration | Uses config.example.json as a template for environment variable mapping and session parameters. |
Zotero Advanced Features
- Full-text search support for indexed library contents and combined field queries.
- Batch operation support with mandatory dry-run modes to prevent accidental data loss.
- Multi-library management allowing seamless switching between personal and multiple group IDs.
- Automated PDF attachment linking via external URLs and metadata synchronization.
- Structured error handling that translates API errors into actionable recovery suggestions for the user.
SKILL.md
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