llm-for-zotero

llm-for-zotero

A simple zotero plugin to use your own llm in the toggle panel.

Stars: 101

Visit
 screenshot

llm-for-zotero is a powerful plugin for Zotero that integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) directly into the Zotero PDF reader. It provides features such as summarizing papers, explaining selected text, interpreting figures, saving notes, saving chat history, customizing quick-action presets, setting up LLM models, auto-updating, and more. The plugin aims to enhance the research experience by offering quick access to AI assistance within Zotero, eliminating the need to upload PDFs to external portals.

README:

llm-for-zotero: Your Right-Hand Side AI Research Assistant

zotero target version zotero target version Using Zotero Plugin Template

LLM for Zotero icon

🚀 This plugin is now renamed to LLM-for-Zotero

Please see the latest release notes. The plugin name is now changed to llm-for-zotero.

Introduction

llm-for-zotero is a powerful plugin for Zotero that integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) directly into the Zotero PDF reader. Unlike other tools that require you to upload your pdfs to a portal, this plugin is designed to conveniently access LLMs without the need to leave Zotero. It quietly sits in the panel of the Zotero reader, like your standby research assistant, ready to help you with any questions you have when reading a paper.

image

Key Features

1. "Everything starts with: Summarize this paper for me"

image

It is always the first question that comes to mind when you open a new paper. With this plugin, you can get a concise summary of the paper in seconds, without having to read through the entire text. You can always find the relevant information you need, and quickly decide whether this paper is worth your time. The summary is generated based on the full content of the paper currently open in your Zotero reader, so you can be sure that the information is accurate and relevant. You can also customize the summary prompt to fit your specific research needs, such as focusing on the methodology, results, or implications of the paper.

2. "Explain this selected text for me"

image

If you come across a complex paragraph or a technical term that you don't understand, simply select the text and ask the model to explain it.

In the plugin, you can enable the pop-up option to conveniently add text to the chat.

If you don't like it, that's totally fine. You can always disable it in the settings! I really think it is important to give you the choice.

When you start your chat with the model, the full context of this paper is already loaded into the model, so the selected text is an additional layer of context that helps the model to provide a more accurate and detailed explanation. This feature is especially useful when you are reading a paper outside of your expertise, or when you want to quickly grasp the key points without getting lost in the details.

3. "What does this figure mean?"

image

In our research, understanding the figures equivalent to understanding the paper. With this plugin, you can take a screenshot of any figure in the paper and ask the model to interpret it for you. It will support up to 5 screenshots at a time.

4. "This answer is nice, I want to save it into my note"

image

This plugin supports seamless integration with your note-taking workflow. You can easily save an answer, or selected text generated by the model into your Zotero notes with just one click.

5. "I learned a lot from talking to you, I wish I could come back to it later"

image

The local conversation history is automatically saved and associated with the paper you are reading. You can also export the whole conversation into your note with markdown format. I spent a plenty amount effort to make sure the mathematical equations rendering is correct in the exported markdown, so complex knowledge will be presented in the most clear way in your note.

The export to note function also supports saving the selected text and screenshots into your note with markdown format. So, you never lose context.

6. "Do you remember my preference?"

image

You can customize the quick-action presets to fit your specific research workflow.

7. "Time to upgrade you, solider"

image

You can set up to 4 LLM models to help you handle different types of tasks: For instance,

  • the multimodal model for helping you to interpret the Figure;
  • text-based model for helping you understand text.

Different models can also be used for the same task, and you can cross check their answers to get a more comprehensive understanding of the paper.

If you want more customization, you can also set up different reasoning levels for the same model in the conversation panel, such as "default", "medium", "high" and "xhigh" for gpt-5.2 series, "low" and "high" for gemini-3-pro-preview, "medium" for gemini-2.5-flash. You can always check the connections by clicking the "Test Connection" button in the settings.

If you are a pro player, you can also change some hyperparameters of the model, such as temperature, max_tokens_output, etc. to get more creative or more deterministic answers.

8. "Can you upgrade yourself?"

image The plugin will automatically check for updates when you open Zotero. If I release an update, you will be able to update the plugin with just one click, without having to go through the installation process again. This way, you can always enjoy the latest features and improvements without any hassle.

Migration note for existing users

The public plugin name is now llm-for-zotero. To keep auto-update seamless for existing installs, the internal add-on ID remains unchanged from earlier releases. User settings and local chat history are migrated automatically on startup.

Installation

Step 1: Download the latest .xpi release

Download the latest .xpi release from the Releases Page.

Open Zotero and go to Tools -> Add-ons.

Step 2: Install the .xpi file

Click the gear icon and select Install Add-on From File

Step 3: Restart Zotero

Select the .xpi file and restart Zotero to complete the installation.

Configuration

Open Preferences and navigate to the llm-for-zotero tab.

Select your Provider (e.g., OpenAI, Gemini, Deepseek).

Paste your API Base URL, secret key and model name.

I will give some popular model as example:

API url Model Name Reasoning Level
https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions gpt-5.2 default, medium, high, xhigh
https://api.openai.com/v1/responses gpt-5.2 default, medium, high, xhigh
https://api.deepseek.com/v1/chat/completions deepseek-chat default
https://api.deepseek.com/v1/chat/completions deepseek-reasoner default
https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/chat/completions gemini-3-pro-preview low, high
https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/chat/completions gemini-2.5-flash medium
https://api.moonshot.ai/v1 kimi-k2.5 default

You can always check the connections by clicking the "Test Connection" button.

Usage Guide

To chat with a paper, open any PDF in the Zotero reader.

Open the LLM Assistant sidebar (click the distinct icon in the right-hand toolbar).

Type a question in the chat box, such as "What is the main conclusion of this paper?"

FAQ

Q: Is it free to use?

A: Yes, absolutely free. You only pay for API calls, if you choose to use a paid API provider. If you think this tool is helpful, please consider supporting me with a star on GitHub or buy me a coffee .

Q: Does this work with local models?

A: Actually, yes. As long as the local model provides an OpenAI compatible HTTP API that is compatible with the plugin, you can connect it by entering the appropriate API Base URL and secret key in the settings.

Q: Is my data used to train models?

A: No. Since you use your own API key, your data privacy is governed by the terms of the API provider you choose (e.g., OpenAI Enterprise terms usually exclude training on API data).

Q: If I have any questions, how to contact you?

A: Please feel free to open an issue on GitHub! I will try my best to help you.

For Tasks:

Click tags to check more tools for each tasks

For Jobs:

Alternative AI tools for llm-for-zotero

Similar Open Source Tools

For similar tasks

For similar jobs