DocsAgent MCP shell for Zotero (Python)

Python port of the TypeScript @docsagent/mcp-zotero shell — an MCP server that talks to the resident DocsAgent C++ search core over POST http://{coreHost}:{httpPort}/rpc. Same tool names, same schemas (loaded verbatim from spec/tools/*.json), same error codes, same write gate.

Install

# from this repo
pip install ./python          # or: uv tool install ./python

Dependencies: mcp>=2.2,<2.3 (official SDK), jsonschema (spec validation). Python ≥ 3.10.

Run

docsagent-mcp-zotero                        # stdio transport (default)
docsagent-mcp-zotero --transport streamable-http   # HTTP on config.httpListenAddr
python -m docsagent_mcp ...                 # same, without installing

Config comes from ~/.docsagent/config.json (or $DOCSAGENT_CONFIG) — the same file the JS shell and the C++ core read. Environment overrides: DOCSAGENT_CONFIG, DOCSAGENT_SPEC_DIR.

MCP client registration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "docsagent-zotero": {
      "command": "docsagent-mcp-zotero",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Bundled core + lifecycle

The wheel ships the C++ core binaries for every supported platform (docsagent_mcp/bin/, the same files as the npm package's bin/): macOS universal (Intel + Apple Silicon), Windows x64, Linux x64 — Linux ARM is not supported — plus their dylibs. Manage the resident core from the same CLI:

docsagent-mcp-zotero core start     # spawn the bundled core for this platform
docsagent-mcp-zotero core status    # pid / endpoint / version
docsagent-mcp-zotero core stop
docsagent-mcp-zotero core restart

The core is spawned detached with DOCSAGENT_HTTP_PORT / DOCSAGENT_ROOT_DIR and the dylib search path pointed at the bundled bin/ (wheels do not preserve the executable bit, so the launcher chmods the binary on first use). State (pid/log) lives next to the config file in ~/.docsagent/.

Tools

list_sources, list_library, search, get_content, get_metadata, import_item, add_note, batch_modify — schemas in docsagent_mcp/spec/tools/ (synced from spec/tools/, single-sourced contract).

• Read tools proxy to the core (search → search + batchSearchPassages, get_content → searchPassages/getContent, …) with the same token budget, dedup, and depth semantics as the JS shell.
• Write tools go to the Zotero local API (http://localhost:23119/api), never through the core; the core only re-indexes afterwards (updateIndex, best-effort). Writes require enableWrites=true in config, confirmed=true in the call, and consume the per-hour write rate limit.

Parity with the JS shell

Same: server name/version, tool set + schemas, annotations, list_tools gating (enableWrites / RBAC roles), write gate + rate limiter, global id format, token budget/dedup algorithms, error codes and suggested_call hints, config keys and defaults, stdio transport.

Differences (v1):

Development

python3 python/sync_spec.py          # refresh the packaged spec copy from spec/
uv venv python/.venv && uv pip install --python python/.venv/bin/python -e ./python
python/.venv/bin/docsagent-mcp-zotero --transport stdio