About this site
A free, independent catalog of Zotero plugins, with each one's code checked so you know what it does with your library before you install it.
Who made this
Hi, I'm Ilias Beshimov. I've used Zotero since college to keep track of papers I want to read for my own learning. I founded an edtech startup, and I now work as a product manager at Academia.edu. This site is a personal hobby project, separate from my job and not affiliated with Academia.edu.
Why it exists
I've always enjoyed finding new Zotero plugins, but it was a chore. They're spread across GitHub, forum threads and blog posts, and it's hard to tell which ones still work or what they do with your library.
I pay for Claude's Max plan and often have usage left over, so I started using it to build a list of every Zotero plugin I could find. Along the way I found that some plugins do things you'd want to know about before installing: sending your library's text to servers you've never heard of, downloading and running programs at startup, or shipping code scrambled so nobody can read it. So the list became a set of checks, and I decided to put in the time to make them useful to everyone.
How the checks work
- Every grade comes from the same written rules, applied to the code of the plugin's latest release. Each finding links to the file and line it came from.
- For an A+, the plugin is installed in a fresh copy of Zotero and every server it contacts is recorded, along with what it sends.
- When a rule changes, every card is recomputed, and grade changes appear in the public log.
- I will get things wrong. Developers can respond to any card, and their response is published next to it.
The full method, with what each grade means, is on How we grade.
Where AI is used
AI doesn't set grades. Grades come from the written rules and the live test. AI is used for two things:
- The plain-English "What it does" descriptions, written from each plugin's README. They're labelled on every card.
- The "What you'll need" answers, such as whether a plugin needs an API key or can use a local model. Each answer is checked by a second, independent run, and has to quote the plugin's own documentation or code. If the two disagree, or there's no quote, the card leaves it out rather than guessing.
The site's code and its rules were also written with Claude's help.
Not commercial
In the spirit of Zotero: no ads, no paid listings, and no one can pay for a better grade. The code is under the MIT license and the data (grades, findings and descriptions) under CC BY 4.0, so anyone can reuse it. Everything, including every rule, is public on GitHub.
This is an independent project, not affiliated with Zotero or the Corporation for Digital Scholarship.