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Zotero Paper Reader

fuzhiyu/researchprojecttemplate

This skill handles the full workflow of pulling academic papers from your Zotero library and converting them to readable markdown. It searches Zotero by title, author, or topic, grabs the PDF (checking local storage first, then downloading if needed), converts it using Mistral's API, and saves everything to a Notes folder with a clean filename format like Author_Year_Title.md. The nice touch is that it reads large papers strategically in sections since academic PDFs often blow past context limits. You'll need API keys for both Zotero and Mistral set up in your .env file, and it works with both local and web Zotero libraries. Honestly most useful if you're regularly citing papers and want them in a format Claude can actually work with.

skills.sh installs
607
GitHub stars
11
last updated
Aug 21, 2026
View on GitHub

Install

$ npx -y skills add fuzhiyu/researchprojecttemplate --skill zotero-paper-reader --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Zotero Paper Reader

Overview

Read and analyze academic papers directly from the Zotero library. This skill handles the complete workflow from searching Zotero to converting PDFs to readable markdown format.

When to Use

Use this skill when the user requests to:

  • "Read this paper from Zotero"
  • "Find and read [paper title]"
  • "Access [author name] paper"
  • "Get the paper about [topic]"
  • "Convert [paper] from Zotero to markdown"

Workflow

Step 1: Search Zotero Library

Use the Zotero MCP tools to search for the paper:

# Search by title, author, or keywords
mcp__zotero__zotero_search_items(query="paper title or author", limit=5)

Present the search results to the user if multiple papers are found. Get the item_key from the selected paper.

Step 2: Get PDF Attachment

Retrieve the PDF attachment information:

# Get child items (attachments) for the paper
mcp__zotero__zotero_get_item_children(item_key="ITEM_KEY")

Look for the attachment with type: application/pdf and note its Key (attachment key) and Filename.

Step 3: Get PDF File (Local or Download)

SKILL.md on GitHub

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Details

Repository
github.com/fuzhiyu/researchprojecttemplate
First seen
Jun 3, 2026

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