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# Export citations

> Items or a whole collection as BibTeX, BibLaTeX, RIS, CSL JSON or a formatted bibliography. Inputs, cURL, Python and Node.js examples and an example response.

Source: https://cotlet.dev/docs/api/zotero/export_citations

Docs sections: [Get started](https://cotlet.dev/docs.md) · [REST API](https://cotlet.dev/docs/api.md) · [MCP](https://cotlet.dev/docs/mcp.md) · [SDKs & CLI](https://cotlet.dev/docs/sdks.md) · [Integrations](https://cotlet.dev/docs/integrations.md)

Items or a whole collection as BibTeX, BibLaTeX, RIS, CSL JSON or a formatted bibliography.

Zotero API: https://cotlet.dev/docs/api/zotero.md

`GET https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/zotero/citations/export`

Access: read.

Exports the items you name, or every item of a collection, in the format you choose. For a bibliography, pass a citation style; otherwise Zotero uses its default. The response holds the text and the number of entries, so you can check nothing was cut.

## Parameters

| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `library` | string | no | 'me' for My Library (default) or a group library ID from list_libraries. |
| `item_keys` | string[] | no | Items to export. Use this or collection_key. |
| `collection_key` | string | no | Collection key from list_collections. |
| `format` | string | yes | One of 'bibtex', 'biblatex', 'ris', 'csljson' or 'bib' (formatted bibliography). |
| `style` | string | no | Citation style for format 'bib', e.g. 'apa'. |

## Request

**cURL**

```bash
curl "https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/zotero/citations/export?collection_key=C4T8WZ2N&format=bibtex" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY"
```

**Python**

```python
result = client.call("zotero", "export_citations", {"collection_key":"C4T8WZ2N","format":"bibtex"})
```

**Node.js**

```js
const result = await cotlet.call('zotero', 'export_citations', {"collection_key":"C4T8WZ2N","format":"bibtex"});
```

**CLI**

```bash
cotlet call zotero export_citations --data '{"collection_key":"C4T8WZ2N","format":"bibtex"}'
```

## Example response

```json
{
  "format": "bibtex",
  "item_count": 2,
  "content": "@article{lee2025sparse,\n  title = {Sparse attention for long documents},\n  author = {Lee, M. and Okafor, T.},\n  year = {2025}\n}\n\n@article{novak2024survey,\n  title = {A survey of retrieval for question answering},\n  author = {Novak, P.},\n  year = {2024}\n}"
}
```

Previous: [Get annotations](https://cotlet.dev/docs/api/zotero/get_annotations.md)
Next: [Add item by identifier](https://cotlet.dev/docs/api/zotero/add_item_by_identifier.md)

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## For AI agents: sign your user up

Is your user asking you to sign them up for Cotlet? You can do it for them, no account or key needed.

1. Read the fields and their allowed values: GET https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/access-requests
2. Ask the user for each value: email, apps, what you will do with them. If they leave the password to you, generate a strong one and show it to them.
3. Show the user what you will send, then POST it as JSON to https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/access-requests.

One call creates the account and sends the access request; we email the user when access is granted.