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DeepTutor – Chat with your research library (Zotero fork)

5 points by loganye 1y ago

loganye 1y ago
Hey HN, I'm Logan. Built DeepTutor after running a beta signup last month. Got 200 researchers in 48 hours. Asked them to screen share their workflow. What I saw: Copy text from Zotero → paste into ChatGPT → upload PDF to NotebookLM → back to Zotero → repeat. Everyone was doing this tab circus just to ask questions about their own papers. So I forked Zotero and embedded the chat directly into the library. Technical bits: - Built on Zotero's open source codebase - One-click import of existing workspaces - Understands figures/tables, cites exact locations - Agent mode: chat with entire library without manual file selection Current state: - Some plugin compatibility issues (fixing) - PDF only for now - Paragraph-level highlights (working toward word-level) Next: MCP integration with Claude Code. Try it: https://deeptutor.knowhiz.us/ https://deeptutor.knowhiz.us/ Happy to discuss architecture or product decisions.
throwaway87452 1y ago
Isn't Zotero AGPL licensed software; such that forks must share their modifications? https://github.com/zotero/zotero/blob/main/COPYING https://github.com/zotero/zotero/blob/main/COPYING (I'm not affiliated with Zotero, though I've enjoyed the advantages of their open source software for research and bibliographic metadata) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zotero https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zotero https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Affero_General_Public_License https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Affero_General_Public_Lice...
- loganye 1y ago
  Hi thanks for the reply. We are open-sourced as well! Feel free to check deeptutor repo https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutor https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutor https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutorZotero https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutorZotero https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutorZotero-reader https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutorZotero-reader
westurner 1y ago
What is possible by integrating chat into Zotero (is it XUL?) that's not yet possible with e.g. pyzotero? pyzotero, paperqa.contrib.ZoteroDB, Paperai supports "Report Schemas" in YAML that could be useful for systematic reviews IIRC the Zotero Connector doesn't work on students' Chromebooks. Tabulator was a cool extension. A clone of Tabulator as a Web Extension that has local storage with a remote sync option would be useful. Zotero does bibliographies with CiteProc and CSL Citation Style Language; CiteProc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CiteProc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CiteProc
- loganye 1y ago
  It is possible! But we still think a new independent app could give us more freedom to build the "Vibe Reading" features

5 points by loganye 1y ago

Hey HN, I'm Logan. Built DeepTutor after running a beta signup last month. Got 200 researchers in 48 hours. Asked them to screen share their workflow. What I saw: Copy text from Zotero → paste into ChatGPT → upload PDF to NotebookLM → back to Zotero → repeat. Everyone was doing this tab circus just to ask questions about their own papers. So I forked Zotero and embedded the chat directly into the library. Technical bits: - Built on Zotero's open source codebase - One-click import of existing workspaces - Understands figures/tables, cites exact locations - Agent mode: chat with entire library without manual file selection Current state: - Some plugin compatibility issues (fixing) - PDF only for now - Paragraph-level highlights (working toward word-level) Next: MCP integration with Claude Code. Try it: https://deeptutor.knowhiz.us/ https://deeptutor.knowhiz.us/ Happy to discuss architecture or product decisions.

throwaway87452 1y ago

Isn't Zotero AGPL licensed software; such that forks must share their modifications? https://github.com/zotero/zotero/blob/main/COPYING https://github.com/zotero/zotero/blob/main/COPYING (I'm not affiliated with Zotero, though I've enjoyed the advantages of their open source software for research and bibliographic metadata) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zotero https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zotero https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Affero_General_Public_License https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Affero_General_Public_Lice...

loganye 1y ago
Hi thanks for the reply. We are open-sourced as well! Feel free to check deeptutor repo https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutor https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutor https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutorZotero https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutorZotero https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutorZotero-reader https://github.com/KnoWhiz/DeepTutorZotero-reader

westurner 1y ago

What is possible by integrating chat into Zotero (is it XUL?) that's not yet possible with e.g. pyzotero? pyzotero, paperqa.contrib.ZoteroDB, Paperai supports "Report Schemas" in YAML that could be useful for systematic reviews IIRC the Zotero Connector doesn't work on students' Chromebooks. Tabulator was a cool extension. A clone of Tabulator as a Web Extension that has local storage with a remote sync option would be useful. Zotero does bibliographies with CiteProc and CSL Citation Style Language; CiteProc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CiteProc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CiteProc

loganye 1y ago
It is possible! But we still think a new independent app could give us more freedom to build the "Vibe Reading" features