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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 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  --style apa --locale en-US --json

Add Child Note

Create a child note under an existing Zotero item.

cli-anything-zotero note add  --text "Key takeaway" --json

Build LLM Context

Assemble structured context for downstream model analysis.

cli-anything-zotero item context  --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 | |------|-------| | literaturereview | systematic-review → critical-thinking → write-paper → seven-pass | | originalarticle | 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 |

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: yb2460
• Source: yb2460/harness-anything
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.