zotero-mcp

Item: zotero-mcp
Rating: 54
Author: M8ven

MCP server that lets AI assistants search, create, organize, and cite from a Zotero library.

→ alisoroushmd/zotero-mcp · listed on glama

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// key findings

✅

36 tools verified — handlers match their declared behaviour

2 read-only tools verified — handlers contain no write/delete/exec

✅

No credential exfiltration, no sensitive file access, no obfuscation

Static analysis found nothing flowing your secrets to unexpected places.

✅

Open source with a license and README

Anyone can audit the code, the license is declared, and the publisher documents what it does.

🔐

You'll be asked for 3 credentials: ZOTERO_API_KEY, OPENALEX_API_KEY, SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY

These are read from process.env at runtime. Make sure you trust where they’ll be sent.

// required environment variables

This server reads these from process.env. You'll be asked to provide them before it can run.

configPARENT_WATCHDOG_DISABLE— No Set to 1 to disable the orphan-process watchdog that kills the server when the parent process (Claude.app, uvx, etc.) exits.

🔐 secretZOTERO_API_KEY— "": "your-api-key",

configZOTERO_USER_ID— "": "your-user-id"

🔐 secretOPENALEX_API_KEY— "": "your-openalex-key"

🔐 secretSEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY— Optionally set for improved rate limits.

configZOTERO_MCP_EMAIL— No Your email address. Sent in User-Agent headers to CrossRef/OpenAlex polite pools and required for Unpaywall PDF lookup in attach_pdf. Without it, Unpaywall PDF fetches are skipped.

configZOTERO_MCP_GRAPH_DB— No Override path for the knowledge-graph SQLite database (default: ~/.local/share/zotero-mcp/graph.sqlite or $XDG_DATA_HOME/zotero-mcp/graph.sqlite).

configZOTERO_DATA_DIR— No Override path to Zotero desktop data directory (default: ~/Zotero). Used by audit_local_keys and the local PDF path resolver in get_pdf_content.

configXDG_DATA_HOME— ZOTERO_MCP_GRAPH_DB No Override path for the knowledge-graph SQLite database (default: ~/.local/share/zotero-mcp/graph.sqlite or $/zotero-mcp/graph.sqlite).

// full audit trail

The full breakdown of what we checked, the deductions that landed, the network hosts, the dependency advisories, and concrete fix guidance is available to verified publishers.

// improvement guidance — verified publishers only

We have 6 concrete improvements we can share with the publisher of this MCP. Each comes with specific guidance to raise the trust score.

// embed badge in your README

[![M8ven Score](https://m8ven.ai/badge/mcp/alisoroushmd-zotero-mcp-lzj891)](https://m8ven.ai/mcp/alisoroushmd-zotero-mcp-lzj891)

commit: 3355b56caad35b94d77c5857201fd3b4563982e9

code hash: 7011976e7fbcedcc12e8f7e9143627fb9824fd0fe511b2b6fd719ab69b38ba42

verified: 6/24/2026, 9:52:19 AM

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