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Research & Knowledge

Search literature and write notes into Zotero

A researcher uses Claude to search Google Scholar, follow citations, query a Zotero library in natural language, and write summary notes into Zotero or Obsidian.

Done with a custom-built or unnamed agent

What they did
Pin Shuai runs Claude Code with the Paper Search MCP to find top-cited papers and the papers citing them. A Zotero MCP, backed by Zotero's local API and a search database, lets Claude query his library in natural language. He asks for a summary of one paper's findings and knowledge gaps based on his own annotations. Claude asks a few clarifying questions, then writes the note into Zotero or Obsidian.
How it went
The note appears in Zotero when he opens it, and library search saves time on hundreds of entries. He hasn't tested having Claude write a literature review from the retrieved papers.
Worth knowing
Searching your own Zotero library keeps Claude from hallucinating papers that don't exist. The setup needs the Zotero local API enabled and a database build, with a slower full-text option.

Try it yourself with Claude Code

Search the literature on [research topic] and find the [number] most relevant papers, following key citations from them. Write a short summary note for each paper into [Zotero library or Obsidian vault path], including title, authors, year, main findings, and how it relates to [my project]. Finish with an index note linking them all, and ask before modifying any existing notes.

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Read the original ↗

Source: groundwater.usu.edu · Undated

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