Zotio

What the OrgMentem/zotio MCP server does

The OrgMentem/zotio MCP server provides an MCP-facing automation layer for Zotero. It supports local-first library search and auditing, bounded context assembly, and write operations that require review before application. The project is designed for workflows such as checking whether a library is ready for citation, identifying duplicate records, finding missing metadata or attachments, and reviewing papers for retractions or other update notices.

The server does not call an LLM. Instead, it gathers and budgets context, labels results with their source and freshness, and passes that material to the connected agent. This makes it useful when an agent needs structured Zotero data without receiving an unrestricted or opaque library mutation interface.

How it works

Read operations use the local Zotero desktop API and its synced SQLite mirror. They do not require a Zotero API key and can work offline against the local mirror. When a write creates a new item, Zotio prefers the local desktop connector for a personal library when Zotero is running. Other mutations—including field edits, deletes, enrichment, tag operations, moves, and collection creation or updates—use the Zotero Web API and require a configured key.

Write handling is preview-first. A proposed change is shown as a plan before it is applied, gates limit the scope of an operation, and irreversible actions require explicit opt-in. Reversible changes are recorded in an append-only journal, and applied changes are replayed into the local mirror so later reads can see them without another synchronization step.

Setup and configuration

The repository provides an MCPB bundle for one-click installation with Claude Desktop. The command-line application can also be installed on macOS with brew install orgmentem/tap/zotio, or users can obtain a signed binary from the project's Releases. Running zotio init guides setup by detecting Zotero, configuring a key, performing an initial sync, and checking health.

Run zotio doctor to inspect connectivity, cache freshness, and whether write-back is available or the installation is currently read-only. Local reads and some new-item writes through the desktop connector do not need a key; Web API-backed writes do.

Tools and capabilities

The OrgMentem/zotio MCP server exposes capabilities through a tagged tool registry. Supported workflows described by the project include:

• Searching and auditing a Zotero library locally.
• Running library health checks for citekey conflicts, duplicates, missing metadata, tag drift, and broken attachments.
• Checking DOI-bearing items against live Crossref data and Retraction Watch notices, including corrections and expressions of concern.
• Checking bibliography keys in a TeX file with bibcheck.
• Enriching or importing records using external sources such as Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, Unpaywall, and OpenCitations.
• Preparing preview-first changes for items, attachments, PDFs, tags, collections, and other supported library mutations.

Health checks can be selected for quick inspection, citation preparation, systematic-review screening, vault synchronization, or a full sweep. The command can also fail with exit code 11 when findings meet a selected severity threshold, which supports CI checks.

Limitations and notes

The local connector is a preference rather than a guarantee. Automatic routing falls back to the Web API when the desktop application is unavailable, and group libraries always use the cloud route. Broken-attachment verification requires Zotero desktop to be running and is disabled by default in the example health workflow.

The project separates read access from write access: a library may remain readable while write-back is unavailable. External enrichment sources are used for feeds and imports, and live checks such as DOI review depend on those services being reachable. The OrgMentem/zotio MCP server is MIT-licensed according to the repository badge.