Zotero library

Use when the person mentions Zotero, "my library", "my references", "my collection" or a collection by name, or asks to cite, list or summarise papers they have already saved.

Zotero keeps the whole library in a folder on the person's computer. Read it from there. There is nothing to connect, no key and no sign-in, and you never ask the person to set anything up or export anything.

Rules

1. Read only. Never change, move or delete anything in the Zotero folder. To add a paper to Zotero, tell the person which papers to add; they do that in Zotero.
2. The library is the source of truth for the person's references. Take authors, year, title, journal, volume, pages and DOI from the record, never from memory, and leave out what the record does not have.
3. If the record looks wrong or incomplete (no year, a title in capitals, a missing DOI), say so and offer to check it with literature-search rather than silently fixing it.
4. Speak in plain words. The person never sees a key, a path or JSON; name a paper by its authors, year and title.

The tool

zotero.py sits beside this file.

python3 <skill folder>/zotero.py where
python3 <skill folder>/zotero.py collections
python3 <skill folder>/zotero.py items --collection "<name>"
python3 <skill folder>/zotero.py items --tag "<tag>"
python3 <skill folder>/zotero.py search "<words>" [--collection "<name>"]
python3 <skill folder>/zotero.py item <key> [<key> ...]

• collections lists every collection with its path and how many works it holds. A collection includes its sub-collections.
• items and search return title, authors, year, venue, volume, issue, pages, doi, type, tags, collections and the attached files.
• item adds the abstract, the person's own notes and every stored field.
• Attached PDFs are ordinary files at the files paths; read them with the pdf skill when the person asks what a paper says.
• A collection name can be given loosely; if nothing matches, the tool lists the collections so you can ask which one they meant.

What it cannot do

• It reads the library on this computer only. A library that lives only on zotero.org or on another computer is not here.
• A group library is included only if Zotero has synced it to this computer.
• If where reports no library, say that Zotero does not seem to be installed on this computer and ask the person for a reference list or file instead.

Using the references

Format reference lists and citations with academic-references, and write papers with paper. Before handing back, check that every work the person asked for is in the list exactly once and that nothing was added from outside their library unless they asked for it.