cli-anything-zotero

cli-anything-zotero is an agent-native CLI for Zotero desktop. It does not reimplement Zotero. Instead, it composes Zotero's real local surfaces:

Installation

pip install -e .

Entry Points

cli-anything-zotero
python -m cli_anything.zotero

Important Constraints

• search items, item export, item citation, and item bibliography require Zotero's Local API to be enabled.
• note add depends on the live Zotero GUI context and expects the same library to be selected in the app.
• Import-time PDF attachment support is limited to items created in the same connector session; arbitrary existing-item attachment upload is still out of scope.
• Experimental SQLite write commands are local-only, user-library-only, and should be treated as non-stable power-user operations.
• If a bare key is duplicated across libraries, set session use-library <id> before follow-up commands.

Command Groups

App

Application and runtime inspection commands.

Command	Description
status	Execute status.
version	Execute version.
launch	Execute launch.
enable-local-api	Execute enable-local-api.
ping	Execute ping.

Collection

Collection inspection and selection commands.

Command	Description
list	Execute list.
find	Execute find.
tree	Execute tree.
get	Execute get.
items	Execute items.
use-selected	Execute use-selected.
create	Execute create.

Item

Item inspection and rendering commands.

Command	Description
list	Execute list.
find	Execute find.
get	Execute get.
children	Execute children.
notes	Execute notes.
attachments	Execute attachments.
file	Execute file.
export	Execute export.
citation	Execute citation.
bibliography	Execute bibliography.
context	Execute context.
analyze	Execute analyze.
add-to-collection	Execute add-to-collection.
move-to-collection	Execute move-to-collection.

Search

Saved-search inspection commands.

Command	Description
list	Execute list.
get	Execute get.
items	Execute items.

Tag

Tag inspection commands.

Command	Description
list	Execute list.
items	Execute items.

Style

Installed CSL style inspection commands.

Command	Description
list	Execute list.

Import

Official Zotero import and write commands.

Command	Description
file	Execute file.
json	Execute json.

Note

Read and add child notes.

Command	Description
get	Execute get.
add	Execute add.

Session

Session and REPL context commands.

Command	Description
status	Execute status.
use-library	Execute use-library.
use-collection	Execute use-collection.
use-item	Execute use-item.
use-selected	Execute use-selected.
clear-library	Execute clear-library.
clear-collection	Execute clear-collection.
clear-item	Execute clear-item.
history	Execute history.

Examples

Runtime Status

Inspect Zotero paths and backend availability.

cli-anything-zotero app status --json

Read Selected Collection

Persist the collection selected in the Zotero GUI.

cli-anything-zotero collection use-selected --json

Render Citation

Render a citation using Zotero's Local API.

cli-anything-zotero item citation <item-key> --style apa --locale en-US --json

Add Child Note

Create a child note under an existing Zotero item.

cli-anything-zotero note add <item-key> --text "Key takeaway" --json

Build LLM Context

Assemble structured context for downstream model analysis.

cli-anything-zotero item context <item-key> --include-notes --include-links --json

Version

0.1.0

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Academic Research Skills Integration

Zotero harness integrates 27 academic research skills. Use skills command group:

cli-anything-zotero skills list              # List all skills
cli-anything-zotero skills list -c writing   # Writing skills only
cli-anything-zotero skills pipeline original_article  # Recommended workflow
cli-anything-zotero skills journal "Nature"  # Journal figure guide

Skill Categories

Category	Skills	Description
search	lit-review, systematic-review, deep-search	Literature discovery
research	ideation, brainstorming, hypothesis, deep-research	Research design
writing	write-paper, manuscript, citation, outline, revision	Paper writing
review	full-review, peer-review, seven-pass, verify-citations, audit-data	Peer review
visualization	slides, schematics, poster, nature-fig	Figures & presentations
analysis	eda, statistics, critical-thinking	Data analysis
pipeline	full-pipeline, research-to-paper	End-to-end workflows

Task Pipelines

Task	Steps
literature_review	systematic-review → critical-thinking → write-paper → seven-pass
original_article	hypothesis → statistics → manuscript → schematics → slides → full-review
meta_analysis	deep-search → deep-research → statistics → write-paper → peer-review
thesis	full-pipeline → seven-pass → slides → poster