zotero-sync

name	zotero-sync
description	Mirror a Zotero collection into the Obsidian vault as `@<citekey>.md` notes, one per item. Skips items already mirrored (by Zotero key); writes new notes with extracted metadata + abstract. Records sync receipts so blog-draft can detect newly available paper notes.
version	1.0.0
author	Hermes Agent
license	MIT
metadata	{"hermes":{"tags":["zotero","obsidian","sync","hermes-native"]}}

zotero-sync — Hermes-native vault mirror

Replaces ~/.hermes/scripts/zotero-to-obsidian.py. Pure ETL: pulls Zotero items, writes Obsidian notes, no LLM calls.

Inputs (env)

• ZOTERO_API_KEY, ZOTERO_USER_ID
• ZOTERO_COLLECTION — target collection key (e.g. 5CD5RDNA)
• OBSIDIAN_VAULT — defaults to ~/obsidian-vault

Procedure

Step 1 — fetch Zotero items (paginated)

# /users/{user}/items?limit=100&start=N
ITEMS=$(zotero_fetch_collection "$ZOTERO_COLLECTION")

Step 2 — write notes

For each item:

• Compute citekey (e.g. luo2025beyond)
• Target: $OBSIDIAN_VAULT/papers/literature/@<citekey>.md
• Skip if file exists AND content hash matches Zotero item
• Otherwise write/update with frontmatter (title, authors, year, venue, doi, url, abstract, tags) + body (abstract + Zotero attachment links)

Step 3 — receipt

cat > ~/.hermes/shared/.last-zotero-obsidian-sync <<EOF
{
  "timestamp": "$(date -Iseconds)",
  "vault": "$OBSIDIAN_VAULT",
  "literature_dir": "$OBSIDIAN_VAULT/papers/literature",
  "collection": "$ZOTERO_COLLECTION",
  "written": $written,
  "skipped_existing": $skipped,
  "errors": [],
  "error_count": 0
}
EOF

Step 4 — Hermes memory

true  # AGENT-ACTION: record to memory tool: "zotero-sync ts:$(date -Iseconds) written:$written skipped:$skipped"

Anti-patterns

• ❌ Do NOT push Zotero items here (that's paper-harvest)
• ❌ Do NOT touch the Obsidian vault outside papers/literature/ from this skill
• ❌ Do NOT call any LLM — this skill is deliberately pure ETL