Zotero Web API (Version 1)#

This is an old version of the Zotero Web API. For new development, use API version 3.

API Documentation#

• Read API
• Write API
• File Uploads
• OAuth Authentication

API Implementations#

Known implementations of the Zotero Web API include:

• https://github.com/fcheslack/libZotero (PHP and Python)
• https://github.com/urschrei/pyzotero (Python)
• https://github.com/clioweb/phpZotero (PHP, no longer maintained)
• https://github.com/scholarpress/scholarpress-workshop

The API‌ forms a fundamental part of several projects, including:

• The online library view at zotero.org, which is built using the same API‌
• Zotpress, a WordPress plugin for including citations to items in your Zotero library in blog posts. The plugin makes extensive use of the read API and implements both key-based and OAuth for access control.
• Biblio Bouts, an game where participants compete to collect high quality sources online. The game uses the API‌ to see what items participants have saved.
• phpZoteroWebDAV, a WebDAV implementation in PHP which allows users to sync their attachments to their own webservers, including an online library and attachment view building off the read API. (AGPL)
• Scanner for Zotero, Android app which saves items to Zotero libraries using the write API (Java, GPL-licensed)
• Zandy Android app using the read and write APIs to provide full access to Zotero libraries (Java, AGPL-licensed)
• ZotPad iPad/iPhone app using the read and file upload APIs to provide read access to Zotero libraries and read/write access to attachment files. Write access is planned. (Objective C, GPL-licensed)