zotero

Run with the GUI

$ zotero

$ zotero --headless

$ zotero -P [profile]

$ zotero --migration

zotero [options] [arguments]

Note: The zotero command primarily launches the Zotero GUI. Any additional arguments are usually passed to the application to open specific files (e.g., Zotero data directory) or handle Zotero URIs, depending on the system's desktop environment and Zotero's internal handlers.

--help
    Displays detailed usage information for the Zotero application and exits. This often includes options relevant to the application's runtime.

--version
    Prints the version number of the installed Zotero application and exits.

Zotero is a free, open-source reference management tool designed to help researchers, students, and scholars collect, organize, cite, and share research sources. The zotero Linux command serves as the primary method for launching the Zotero desktop application. When executed, it initializes the graphical user interface (GUI), allowing users to manage their research libraries, create bibliographies, and integrate with word processors. It acts as the gateway to Zotero's powerful features, including saving articles from the web, annotating PDFs, syncing data across devices, and generating citations in a multitude of styles. The command itself typically points to a wrapper script that sets up the environment and executes the main Zotero application binary.

The zotero command is primarily designed to launch the graphical user interface of the Zotero application. Unlike many traditional command-line utilities, it offers a very limited set of explicit command-line options for direct interaction with the library or data. Most advanced functionalities are accessible only through the Zotero GUI. Its behavior regarding opening specific files or URIs (e.g., zotero://select/library/items/ABCD) is typically handled by the desktop environment's file association mechanisms and Zotero's internal URI handlers once the application is launched, rather than as direct command-line parameters of the zotero wrapper script itself.

Zotero supports a custom URI scheme (e.g., zotero://select/library/items/ABCD) that allows deep linking to specific items or collections within a user's Zotero library. While the zotero command itself doesn't directly process these as options, they are registered with the operating system, allowing Zotero to open to the specified content when such URIs are clicked in web browsers or other applications.

A core feature of Zotero is its integration with popular word processors like Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs. This allows users to insert citations and generate bibliographies directly from their Zotero library within their documents. The zotero command merely launches the application; the integration itself is managed through plugins installed within the word processors.

Zotero was initially developed at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, with its first public release in 2006 as a Firefox extension. Its revolutionary approach to web-based research capture quickly gained traction. Over time, as web browser technologies evolved and Zotero's scope expanded beyond just a browser add-on, it transitioned into a standalone desktop application. The first standalone version, Zotero 3.0, was released in 2011, followed by Zotero 4.0 in 2013, and a major rewrite using Electron for Zotero 5.0 in 2017, which brought significant improvements in performance and cross-platform compatibility. The zotero command on Linux systems emerged as the standard way to launch this standalone application, typically a wrapper script pointing to the Electron-based executable, ensuring consistent access for users across various distributions.

mendeley (Proprietary reference manager), jabref(1) (Open-source BibTeX reference manager), bibtool(1) (Tool for manipulating BibTeX files), xdg-open(1) (Opens files or URLs with the user's preferred application)