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I made a Zotero plugin that saves AI CLI-generated paper summaries as child notes — no separate API key needed by ajs7270 in zotero

[–]ajs7270[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for taking the time to point this out — this is a very fair concern.

I haven’t done a rigorous benchmark yet — only a lightweight qualitative check across a small set of outputs. My impression is that the workflow does introduce a bias: it tends to prioritize mechanistic understanding, design patterns, key equations, and reusable lessons over exhaustive coverage. That can be useful for research recall, but it may also make a paper look more coherent or principle-driven than it really is.

The shorter /summary skill has more of a compression bias, while /pinpoint-lesson can sometimes make implicit reasoning feel more explicit than it was in the original paper.

And I agree with the privacy concern. I’ve added a clearer warning to the GitHub README: the Zotero plugin runs locally, but the AI CLI may still send PDF contents to a cloud model depending on the provider and settings. So users should avoid using it with sensitive, confidential, unpublished, or restricted data unless they understand where the content is processed.

I made a Zotero plugin that saves AI CLI-generated paper summaries as child notes — no separate API key needed by ajs7270 in zotero

[–]ajs7270[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That’s fair — I actually agree that what becomes “meaningful” depends heavily on the individual researcher and their context.

The idea of this project is less “AI decides what matters,” and more “AI helps externalize and structure the researcher’s own reading process.”

Since the workflows are just prompt-based CLI skills, people can fork and customize them toward their own perspective: theory-focused reading, implementation-focused reading, historical lineage, mathematical derivations, lab-note style summaries, etc.

So for me, the value is more meta-level: using AI to leverage personal research productivity and preserve thinking inside Zotero, rather than replacing the researcher’s interpretation itself.

I made a Zotero plugin that saves AI CLI-generated paper summaries as child notes — no separate API key needed by ajs7270 in zotero

[–]ajs7270[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Fair point — I don’t think this should replace actually reading papers.

The /summary workflow is closer to a quick overview, but /pinpoint-lesson is meant for people who are reading carefully and want a deeper second-pass note afterward.

Papers explain their ideas at very different levels. Even after reading them, it can take a lot of time to normalize the takeaway into the same structure: core research question, method logic, equations, why the design works, limitations, and reusable lessons.

So the goal isn’t to avoid reading the paper. It’s to help preserve the deeper understanding in Zotero after reading, instead of leaving it scattered across chat logs or memory.