How I use it
I give Claude whatever I have - a link, a DOI, or a title someone mentioned in a talk - and say "add this to Zotero". It adds to my own library or to a shared group library.
- DOIs and arXiv IDs go straight through the official lookups, Crossref and arXiv.
- For a report on a website, Claude reads the page or PDF itself and fills in the item type and authors.
- By default Claude adds the item's abstract, or writes a short summary from the document when there isn't one. You can tell it to leave the abstract out.
- If there's a press release and the report it announces, Claude asks whether I want one record or both.
Last updated 21 August 2026
Visual overview
Where it works
| Claude Code | Works
|
|---|---|
| Cowork | Works, with notes
|
| Claude chat | Doesn't run here
|
| Build your own | Any setup
|
Get it
Claude Code
Run these once in a terminal. To update later, run claude plugin update zotero-librarian@aksaeri-tools.
claude plugin marketplace add aksaeri/ai-tools-public
claude plugin install zotero-librarian@aksaeri-tools- Needs a Zotero account, and a Zotero API key with write access.
On Windows, if you don't have an SSH key set up for GitHub, set CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_PREFER_HTTPS=1 first.
Cowork
- In the Claude desktop app, open Customize, then Plugins.
- Choose Add marketplace and enter
aksaeri/ai-tools-public. - Install zotero-librarian.
Before it will run:
- Needs uv installed inside Cowork's virtual machine.
- Calls outside services, so network access must be allowed for your workspace.
Claude chat
This one doesn't run in Claude chat:
- Needs uv, which Claude chat can't run.
Use Claude Code, or build your own version from the brief.
Build your own
Give the brief to your own Claude and adapt it to what you use. Read the brief.
Read https://tools.aksaeri.com/skills/zotero-librarian/zotero-librarian-brief.md and help me build my own version of zotero-librarian for my setup. Ask me what I use first.