lalig7

Zotero Reference Import — AI skill for Claude Code

AI community

AI agent skill for Claude & Codex that imports references into Zotero from Word bibliographies, single PDFs or PDF folders, using PubMed, DOI and CrossRef with title checks, previews and per-user API.

How to install Zotero Reference Import

This entry records only its repository, not the path inside it, so there is no exact command to give. Open lalig7/zotero-reference-import and copy the folder into ~/.claude/skills/, or the file into ~/.claude/agents/.

What Zotero Reference Import does

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README

Zotero Reference Import: an AI agent skill

Get your references into Zotero without typing them in one by one. This skill works in **Claude** (Claude Code, Claude.ai / Claude desktop) and **OpenAI Codex**. It imports references into the Zotero collection you choose, from:

You have…	What happens
A Word bibliography (`.docx`)	Each reference is resolved by PMID → DOI → URL and created as a full Zotero record (authors, journal, year, volume, pages)
A plain-text reference list (`.txt` / `.md`), e.g. a literature-search shortlist	Same as Word, one reference per line
A single research PDF	The PDF's PMID is verified against PubMed, a record is created and the PDF is attached
A folder of research PDFs (subfolders included)	The same as a single PDF, for every PDF in the folder, with exact duplicates skipped

Metadata comes from **PubMed** and **CrossRef**. Before anything is created, each match is checked against the citation's title, so a typo in a PMID can't silently import the wrong paper.

Safety by design

Preview first. Nothing is written to Zotero unless you add --upload.
Your API key is never stored. It is typed at a prompt (or read from ZOTERO_API_KEY) and is never written to scripts, logs or progress files.
Resumable. Progress is saved after every item, so you can re-run the same command after an interruption. References already in the collection (matched by PMID, DOI or URL) are skipped, not duplicated.
Nothing is deleted or merged. Mismatches and references with no identifier are listed for you to review by hand.

Install

Download this repository (Code → Download ZIP, or git clone).
Copy the zotero-reference-import folder to where your agent loads skills:

Agent	Location
Claude Code	`~/.claude/skills/zotero-reference-import/`
Claude.ai / Claude desktop	Zip the `zotero-reference-import` folder, then upload it under **Settings → C