BibGenie is an AI research agent that runs natively inside Zotero to search, analyze, organize, and discuss your library, PDFs, notes, images, and screenshots through a chat interface that supports multiple AI models.
What is BibGenie?
BibGenie is a Zotero plugin that turns your library into a conversational workspace. It takes any Zotero context—items, PDFs, snapshots, notes, tags, collections, selected text, current pages, images, and screenshots—as input and produces answers with traceable citations, saveable Zotero notes, or library organization actions. The plugin runs on Zotero (version specifics not stated) and is developed by an independent team with no third-party data sharing for custom model setups.
Key Features
- Native Zotero chat — Type
@ in the input box to search and attach items, attachments, notes, tags, and collections directly from your Zotero library without copying content to a separate chatbot.
- Library search — Find papers by title, author, year, DOI, tag, collection, journal, or conference (keyword search) or by meaning (semantic search).
- Deep paper reading — Ask for methods, findings, assumptions, limitations, formulas, figures, and section-level explanations from attached PDFs.
- OpenAlex academic search — Discover papers, authors, venues, citation neighbors, and research trends beyond your local library (Pro/Max plans).
- Web Search / Web Extract — Search and pull content from public web pages with source-tracing citations (Pro/Max plans).
- Save as Zotero note — Convert chat responses into formatted Zotero notes with headings, lists, formulas, code blocks, tables, links, and citations.
- Library organization — Add tags, create collections, move items, group papers by topic/method/year/project, and clean up missing metadata (e.g., DOI, abstract) with preview-first batch changes.
- Multi-model support — Choose between recommended official models or bring your own key for OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Gemini, OpenRouter, Groq, Ollama, LM Studio, Zhipu, Qwen, Grok, Kimi, Minimax, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Custom model requests flow directly from the local plugin to your configured provider.
Who is BibGenie for?
- Academic researchers — Use the agent to read multiple papers, ask comparative questions about methods or findings, and save structured notes directly into Zotero.
- PhD students and postdocs — Organize a growing library by requesting tag-and-collection plans, previewing changes, and applying batch metadata corrections.
- Literature review writers — Use OpenAlex search to discover relevant papers beyond your library, then attach them to Zotero and synthesize evidence with traceable citations.
- Independent scholars and citizen scientists — Run local models (Ollama, LM Studio) for full privacy while still benefiting from library search, semantic search, and note-saving features.
What can you do with BibGenie?
- Discuss a specific paper: Attach a PDF or snapshot via
@ search, then ask for a summary of methods, key findings, and limitations. The answer will include citations pointing back to the document.
- Synthesize evidence across papers: Select multiple items from a collection, ask BibGenie to compare their approaches or compile a literature summary, and save the result as a Zotero note with headings and references.
- Clean and organize a messy library: Request a plan to add missing DOIs or abstracts, then apply changes in one step after reviewing the preview list of affected items.
- Discover new research: Use OpenAlex search (Pro/Max) to find papers by author or citation network, attach results to Zotero, and continue the conversation with deep reading.
