---

name: zotero-add description: Add academic papers to Zotero library. Use when users want to save papers to Zotero, create collections, or organize their research library. Handles PDF downloads and metadata. allowed-tools: Read,Bash,Write

Zotero Paper Management Skill

Add papers to Zotero with full metadata and PDF attachments.

Prerequisites

1. Configuration file at config/config.json with Zotero settings
2. Environment variable ZOTERO_API_KEY or in .env file
3. Get API key from: https://www.zotero.org/settings/keys

Usage

Add a paper to Zotero:

Copycd /Users/varde/code/arxiv-zotero-obsidian && python3 .claude/skills/zotero-add/scripts/add_to_zotero.py \
  --arxiv-id "2401.12345" \
  --title "Paper Title" \
  --authors "Author One,Author Two" \
  --abstract "Paper abstract..." \
  --published "2024-01-15" \
  --collection "Collection Name"

Available Options

Examples

Copy# Basic add with PDF
python3 .claude/skills/zotero-add/scripts/add_to_zotero.py \
  --arxiv-id "1706.03762" \
  --title "Attention Is All You Need" \
  --authors "Ashish Vaswani,Noam Shazeer,Niki Parmar" \
  --published "2017-06-12" \
  --collection "Transformers"

# Add with tags, skip PDF
python3 .claude/skills/zotero-add/scripts/add_to_zotero.py \
  --arxiv-id "2401.12345" \
  --title "Example Paper" \
  --authors "John Doe" \
  --tags "machine-learning,nlp" \
  --skip-pdf

Workflow

1. Script creates or finds the specified collection
2. Creates a journalArticle item with metadata
3. Downloads PDF from arXiv (unless --skip-pdf)
4. Attaches PDF to the item
5. Returns item key for reference

Output

Returns JSON with:

• item_key: Zotero item identifier
• collection_key: Collection identifier (if used)
• pdf_attached: Boolean indicating PDF upload success

Integration with arxiv-search

After searching with arxiv-search skill, use the arxiv_id from results:

Copy# From search result [1] with arxiv_id 2401.12345
python3 .claude/skills/zotero-add/scripts/add_to_zotero.py \
  --arxiv-id "2401.12345" \
  --title "..." --authors "..."

Troubleshooting

• API Key Error: Check ZOTERO_API_KEY in .env or environment
• Library ID Error: Verify library_id in config/config.json
• PDF Upload Failed: Check internet connection, retry with --skip-pdf