Announcing MCP Server for AI-Assisted Zotero Plugin Development

[José Fernandes]

Hi everyone,
I've released an open-source tool that enables AI assistants (Claude, Cursor, Windsurf) to help build and debug Zotero 7/8 plugins.

What it does:

The MCP server gives AI assistants direct access to your running Zotero instance:

• Take screenshots and inspect the DOM
• Execute JavaScript in Zotero's context
• Explore APIs interactively (Zotero.Items, ZoteroPane, etc.)
• Read debug logs and error console
• Hot-reload plugins during development
• Query the SQLite database (read-only)

Example workflow:

You can ask your AI assistant things like:

• "Take a screenshot of Zotero and tell me what's visible"
•  "Find all toolbar buttons and show me their IDs"
• "Why is my plugin throwing this error?" (it reads the logs)
• "What methods does Zotero.Items have?"

Links:

•  GitHub: https://github.com/introfini/mcp-server-zotero-dev
•   npm: @introfini/mcp-server-zotero-dev

It uses Firefox's Remote Debugging Protocol under the hood, with a small bridge plugin that enables RDP on port 6100.

Feedback and contributions welcome!

José