Notes & Tags¶

View Notes¶

zot note ABC123

Displays all notes attached to an item, converted from HTML to Markdown.

Add a Note¶

zot note ABC123 --add "This paper proposes a new attention mechanism"

Write operations require API credentials

See Setup to configure your API key.

Markdown handling¶

Zotero stores notes as HTML, so --add converts Markdown to HTML before submitting:

YAML frontmatter (--- ... ---) at the top of the note is stripped.
Obsidian callouts (> [!type] text) become blockquotes with the text in bold.
Headings, emphasis, lists, links, code, and tables render as Zotero formatting.

Pass --raw to store the content verbatim (e.g. when you already have HTML):

zot note ABC123 --add "<p>Already <strong>HTML</strong>.</p>" --raw

Do not POST raw ** Markdown

The Zotero API escapes Markdown emphasis it does not interpret: posting **bold** stores \*\*bold\*\*, which Zotero renders as literal text. Always let --add convert, or pass --raw with HTML.

Standalone (top-level) notes¶

Standalone notes have no parent item and appear at the top level of the library. Create and list them with --standalone (no KEY):

zot note --standalone --add "Key finding: ..."   # create a standalone note
zot note --standalone                            # list all standalone notes
zot note STANKEY                                 # read a standalone note by its key

The same Markdown handling (conversion, --raw, --dry-run) applies to standalone notes.

Update a Note¶

Notes can be updated via the MCP tools (note_update). See MCP Tools Reference.

View Tags¶

zot tag ABC123

Add Tags¶

zot tag ABC123 --add "important"
zot tag ABC123 --add "to-read" --add "attention"

Remove Tags¶

zot tag ABC123 --remove "to-read"

Batch Tag Operations¶

Tags can be added to or removed from multiple items at once via MCP tools (tag_add, tag_remove). See MCP Tools Reference.