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Export a Zotero collection as BibTeX

Your LaTeX project reads a references.bib file, and it is out of date the moment you add a paper to the collection.

Cotlet does it in your own Zotero account with list_collections and export_citations, called by your AI agent, an n8n workflow or a script.

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Hosted · nothing to install or maintain

Can Zotero do this on its own?

Zotero exports in the desktop app and through the Web API (checked 16 Oct 2026). The API returns items in BibTeX, BibLaTeX, RIS, CSL JSON and other formats with the format parameter, and a formatted bibliography with format=bib. The API needs your own code, a key and a limit on every call, and the desktop app needs you at the keyboard.

How you do it in Zotero today

  1. In the left pane, right-click the collection and choose Export Collection….
  2. Pick the format in the dialog, save the file and copy it into your project folder.
  3. For a formatted list instead, select the items, right-click and choose Create Bibliography from Item(s)…, then pick a citation style and an output mode such as Copy to Clipboard.
  4. Edit > Copy Bibliography puts the entries for the selected items on the clipboard in one step.
  5. Every new paper means repeating this, and the file is a snapshot: it does not follow the collection.

How to export a Zotero collection as BibTeX

Prompt

Export my collection "Thesis: related work" as BibTeX and save it as references.bib. Tell me how many entries it has.
  1. 01

    Find the collection

    Your agent matches the name you gave against list_collections. If two collections share a name, it asks which parent you mean instead of exporting the wrong one.

  2. 02

    Choose the format

    It exports with export_citations as BibTeX unless you asked for RIS, CSL JSON or a bibliography with a named citation style.

  3. 03

    Check the count

    The agent compares item_count with the number of items it can see in the collection, so a partial export is reported, not saved as complete.

  4. 04

    Hand over the file

    In Claude Code the agent writes the content to references.bib in your project. In n8n the content field goes to the next node, for example a commit or an upload.

What you get back

Example data

Exported "Thesis: related work" as BibTeX
2 entries written to references.bib
Items in the collection: 2, entries exported: 2

Other ways to ask

  • Export the collection "Methods" as CSL JSON and tell me which items have no creators.
  • Every Friday, export "Thesis: related work" as BibTeX and commit references.bib to the thesis repo.
  • Give me a bibliography of the collection "Chapter 2" in APA style as HTML text.

What Zotero allows, and what to know first

  • The Web API supports bibtex, biblatex, ris, csljson, mods, refer, csv and other export formats.
  • A formatted bibliography with format=bib is limited to 150 items per request, and the default style is chicago-note-bibliography.
  • Zotero says an export is not a backup and some fields can change or drop, so the file is for citing, not for moving a library.
  • Web API export calls need a limit of 1 to 100 items per request, so a large collection is read in pages and joined into one file.

Every tool here only reads, so it can run weekly from n8n, Make, Zapier or cron without waiting for your OK.

Sources: Zotero: exporting · Zotero: creating bibliographies · Zotero Web API v3: basics

Call export_citations from a script

curl

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

Example response

{
  "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}"
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the call is zotero_read → export_citations. Example data.

Schedule it in n8n, Make, Zapier or cron

Zotero tools this automation uses

Cotlet Zotero tools used to export a Zotero collection as BibTeX
Tool Parameters
list_collections library
export_citations library, item_keys, collection_key, format, style
All 11 Zotero tools with descriptions

Frequently asked questions

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