shrsv / ai-research-assistant

Aria is Your AI Research Assistant Powered by Large Language Models

A.R.I.A. (Aria) - Your AI Research Assistant

If you have previously installed Aria (formerly Zotero RA) version 0.0.10 or below, please manually remove it under Tools => Add-ons => Remove. Because the legacy versions have incompetible plugin ID and cannot be auto-updated.

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.

Installation

• 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

Aria can be activated 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.

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 no awareness of your Zotero application state (selected item, current tab, highlighted text) and therefore cannot answer the related questions. This capability will be added over time.

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!

• "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.

• 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.