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Aria - AI Research Assistant (Zotero Plugin) - AI Research Tools Tool

Overview

Aria is an open-source Zotero plugin that brings GPT-4-class capabilities directly into a researcher’s reference manager. According to the GitHub repository, Aria leverages GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo and GPT-4 Vision to provide conversational interactions, autocompletion of notes/metadata, drag-and-drop referencing, and visual analysis of figures or images. It is intended to streamline literature management and annotation workflows by letting users query and interact with their Zotero library using natural language and vision-enabled analysis. The plugin targets researchers who want context-aware assistance inside Zotero: quickly generate or complete item metadata and citations, ask conversational questions about selected items, or request visual interpretation of figures embedded in PDFs. The project is released under the AGPL-3.0 license and, per the GitHub repository, shows ongoing maintenance and feature development that integrates OpenAI model capabilities directly into the Zotero UI.

GitHub Statistics

  • Stars: 1,627
  • Forks: 112
  • Contributors: 3
  • License: AGPL-3.0
  • Primary Language: JavaScript
  • Last Updated: 2025-04-01T04:03:54Z
  • Latest Release: v0.7.5

Repository metrics (GitHub): 1,627 stars, 112 forks, 3 contributors; license: AGPL-3.0. The project had a recent commit on 2025-04-01, indicating active maintenance. Community size is modest: the star/fork counts show solid interest, but contributor count is small, suggesting a compact core team. Issues, pull request volume, and discussions were not enumerated here; primary contribution and engagement channels appear to be the GitHub repo (issues/PRs).

Installation

Install via npm:

git clone https://github.com/lifan0127/ai-research-assistant.git
cd ai-research-assistant
npm install
npm run build
Install the produced .xpi (or extension build) into Zotero via Tools > Add-ons > Install Add-on From File

Key Features

  • Drag-and-drop referencing: drop Zotero items into documents to insert citations and generate bibliography entries
  • Autocompletion: generate or complete item metadata and note text inside Zotero fields
  • Conversational assistant: ask natural-language questions about selected Zotero items and get context-aware responses
  • GPT-4 Vision visual analysis: analyze figures or images in PDFs and receive descriptive/interpretive outputs
  • In-library interactions: manage, annotate, and query Zotero items without leaving the Zotero interface

Community

Community engagement is centered on GitHub, with 1,627 stars and 112 forks showing user interest. The project has a small core team (3 contributors) and an AGPL-3.0 license that encourages community contributions. Recent commits indicate active maintenance, but broader user-review data and third-party forum feedback were not available from the repository metadata.

Last Refreshed: 2026-01-09

Key Information

  • Category: Research Tools
  • Type: AI Research Tools Tool
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