A.R.I.A. (Aria) - Your AI Research Assistant
Aria is a Zotero plugin powered by Large Language Models (LLMs). A-R-I-A is the acronym of "AI Research Assistant" in reverse order.
Quickstart
The easist way to get started with Aria is to try one of the interactive prompts in the prompt library.
Features
Use Drag-and-Drop to Reference Your Zotero Items and Collections
Autocompletion for Creators (Authors), Tags, Items and More
Visual Analysis (GPT-4 Vision)
How to use Zotero area annotation to create a draggable area in PDF?
Save Chat as Notes and Annotations
Zotero and GPT Requirements
- Currently, only Zotero 6 is supported. Compatibility with Zotero 7 has not been tested.
- Aria requires the OpenAI GPT-4 model family. (how can I access GPT-4?)
- The visual analysis feature requires the preview access to the GPT-4 Vision model.
Installation
For a detailed walkthrough of the installation process, please check out: https://twitter.com/MushtaqBilalPhD/status/1735221900584865904 (credit: Mushtaq Bilal, PhD - Syddansk Universitet)
- Download the latest release (.xpi file) from GitHub: https://github.com/lifan0127/ai-research-assistant/releases/latest
- In Zotero select Tools from the top menu bar, and then click on Addons.
- On the Add-ons Manager panel, click the gear icon at the top right corner and select Install Add-on From File
- Select the .xpi file you just downloaded and click Open which will start the installation process.
Quickstart
By default, Aria can be activated by clicking the 
button on Zoterol toolbar or through the "Shift + R" shortcut.
Before using Aria, you need to provide an OpenAI API Key. Follow the in-app instruction to add a key and restart Zotero. (screenshots)
After restart, you should see the activated Aria window (as shown above) and can start using it through conversations.
Preferences
Aria is configurable through Edit > Preferences > Aria. Please note that some changes require Zotero restart.
- Model Selection: Choose between the base GPT-4 model and the new GPT-4 Turbo model (Preview).
- Zoom Level: Adjust the zoom level to fit your screen resolution
- Keyboard shortcut: Change the keyboard shortcut combination to better fit your workflow.
Update
- Aria can perform automatic update when internet access is available. To check for available update, select Tools from the top menu bar, and then click on Addons.
- To manually update ARIA, click More under Aria and then click the gear icon at the top right corner. Select Check for Updates. (screenshots)
Limitations
The following are known limitations based on user feedback.
- Currently Aria can query your Zotero library through the Zotero search API. The ability to query the Zotero SQLite database for document count and other metrics will be delivered in a future release.
- Aria has limited awareness of your Zotero application state (selected item, current tab, highlighted text). However, you can use the drag-n-drop and the autocompeltion features to provide such context within your message.
Troubleshooting
Interaction with Zotero, in an open conversational manner and through a probabilistic model, can lead to many different, often unexpected outcomes. If you experience any error, please create an GitHub issue with a screenshot of the error message from your Aria chat window. Thank you!
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"Agent stopped due to max iterations": For certain questions, the bot will make multiple API calls iteratively for response synthesis. Sometimes, it may fail to produce an answer before reaching the max iterations.
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Aria tab not in Preferences panel: You may choose the Advanced tab in Preferences and open the Configuration Editor Under Advanced Configuration. From there, please search for "aria" and then double-click on the "extensions.zotero.aria.OPENAI_API_KEY" entry to add your OpenAI API Key.
Development
Refer to the Zotero Plugin Development guide to find instructions on how to setup the plugin in your local environment.
Feedback
You can now submit feedback and share your chat session to help improve Aria. Let's make Aria better together!
