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PapersGPT For Zotero - AI Research Tools Tool

Overview

PapersGPT For Zotero is an open-source Zotero plugin that brings conversational AI directly into academic research workflows. According to the GitHub repository, it enables users to interact with PDF documents through a chat interface—letting researchers ask questions about a paper, obtain focused summaries, and extract context from specific sections without leaving their Zotero library. The project emphasizes support for a wide range of state-of-the-art language models (for example, GPT-4.5, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek and others) and provides options to connect to external LLM APIs. A key focus of PapersGPT For Zotero is privacy and flexibility: the extension can route queries to cloud-hosted models or run local model instances to keep data on-device. Integration is designed to be seamless with Zotero’s items and associated PDFs, preserving metadata and citation context while enabling conversational retrieval. The project is released under AGPL-3.0 and targets researchers who want interactive, model-driven reading, rapid literature triage, and private local inference capability while staying inside Zotero.

GitHub Statistics

  • Stars: 2,033
  • Forks: 67
  • Contributors: 3
  • License: AGPL-3.0
  • Primary Language: JavaScript
  • Last Updated: 2026-01-08T02:12:18Z
  • Latest Release: papersgpt-v0.4.3

The GitHub repository shows strong community interest with 2,033 stars and 67 forks, indicating wide adoption and visibility. According to repository metadata, there are 3 contributors, which suggests a small core development team maintaining the project. The repo is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and had a recent commit on 2026-01-08, signaling ongoing maintenance. Overall, activity metrics imply healthy user interest but a compact contributor base; prospective users should review open issues and the contribution guidelines for current issue/PR activity before relying on cutting-edge features.

Installation

Install via npm:

git clone https://github.com/papersgpt/papersgpt-for-zotero.git
cd papersgpt-for-zotero
npm install
npm run build
Follow the repository README to install the built Zotero extension (Tools ▸ Add-ons ▸ Install Add-on From File in Zotero)

Key Features

  • Chat with PDFs inside Zotero for question answering and interactive reading
  • Supports GPT-4.5, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, and other LLM endpoints
  • Option to deploy and run local models for privacy-preserving, offline inference
  • Seamless integration with Zotero items, PDFs, and bibliographic metadata
  • Configurable model/APIs and API key management for flexible provider routing

Community

The project has notable visibility (2,033 GitHub stars) and an active codebase (last commit 2026-01-08) but a small core team (3 contributors). Community engagement appears centered on the GitHub repo—check issues and discussions for user feedback, setup help, and roadmap conversations.

Last Refreshed: 2026-01-09

Key Information

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