Awesome-omni-skill zotero-api-skill

Zotero HTTP API helper for downloading, fetching, searching, creating, and updating Zotero items. Use when syncing or managing Zotero items programmatically; defaults to ZOTERO_USER and ZOTERO_API_KEY environment variables.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/development/zotero-api-skill" ~/.claude/skills/diegosouzapw-awesome-omni-skill-zotero-api-skill && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/development/zotero-api-skill/SKILL.md

source content

Zotero API Skill

Overview

Use

scripts/zotero_cli.py

to perform deterministic Zotero API operations: download items to disk, fetch a single item, search items, create new items, or write updated metadata back to Zotero. The script reads

ZOTERO_USER

(user ID) and

ZOTERO_API_KEY

from the environment unless overridden by flags.

Quick Start

Download all items (skip attachments by default):

zotero-api-skill/scripts/zotero_cli.py download --output-dir ./output

Fetch a single item as JSON:

zotero-api-skill/scripts/zotero_cli.py get --key ABCD1234

Update an item from a JSON file:

zotero-api-skill/scripts/zotero_cli.py update --key ABCD1234 --input ./output/ABCD1234/original.json

Search items by query:

zotero-api-skill/scripts/zotero_cli.py search --query "transformer retrieval" --limit 10

Create an item from data JSON:

zotero-api-skill/scripts/zotero_cli.py create --input ./new_item.json --data-only

Tasks

Download items

Use

download

to save each item into its own directory under

--output-dir

. The script writes

original.json

and a dated

original-MM-DD.json

snapshot.

Common options:

```
--limit
```
: page size for Zotero API pagination.
```
--max-items
```
: stop after N items.
```
--include-attachments
```
: include attachment items.
```
--start
```
: start offset for pagination.
```
--no-snapshot
```
: skip the dated snapshot file.

Fetch a single item

Use

get

with

--key

to print the item JSON to stdout, or pass

--output

to save it to a file.

Search items

Use

search

with

--query

to run a Zotero quicksearch. Optional filters:

--qmode

--item-type

--tag

--start

--limit

Create items

Use

create

with

--input

to POST new item data. The input file can be:

A list of data objects (array), or
A single data object, or
A list of full Zotero items (with a top-level
```
data
```
field).

Update item metadata

Use

update

with

--key

and

--input

to PUT item metadata. The input file can be:

A full Zotero item JSON (with a top-level
```
data
```
field), or
A data-only object (set
```
--data-only
```
to force this).

Prefer updating from a freshly fetched item so required fields like

itemType

key

, and

version

stay consistent.

Notes

The script uses Zotero API version 3 and retries on transient HTTP errors.
If you need the same update flow as the repo, edit the
```
data
```
payload and use
```
update
```
to write back.