Obsidian vs zotero-skills
Obsidian is an MCP server published by MarkusPfundstein. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Docker MCP Catalog). zotero-skills is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by WenyuChiou. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Community GitHub marketplaces). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-11-11. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |   Obsidian |  zotero-skills |
|---|---|---|
| Docker MCP Catalog | Listed Version: sha256:0eba4c05742a Forks (GitHub): 509 Pulls (Docker Hub): 151 807 Stars (Docker Hub): 31 Stars (GitHub): 4 528 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Community marketplace wenyuchiou/ai-research-skills | Not listed | Listed Version: 0.4.0 Forks (GitHub): 7 Stars (GitHub): 78 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | Obsidian | zotero-skills |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it | 1 | 1 |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 4 528 (better) | 78 (worse) |
| Pulls (Docker Hub) (differs) | 151 807 | No figure on Docker Hub |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 509 (better) | 7 (worse) |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | On your machine (mcp/obsidian) | Installs as a plugin bundle |
| Transport (differs) | stdio | Not stated |
| Tools it declares (differs) | 12 | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | 2, secrets among them: 1 | Not published |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | Not a bundle | 1 |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/markuspfundstein/mcp-obsidian | github.com/wenyuchiou/zotero-skills |
| Changes in the last 7 days (differs) | 0 | 2 |
| First seen (differs) | 2026-10-11 | 2026-11-10 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
Obsidian
MCP server that interacts with Obsidian via the Obsidian rest API community plugin.
zotero-skills
Full Zotero CRUD: search, add, update, tag, trash/restore, delete, merge duplicates, and attach PDFs via pyzotero. Dual local/Web API routing; writes work even when the separately configured zotero MCP server is read-only.
How to run each
Obsidian As a local MCP server: Docker image
claude mcp add --env "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_API_KEY>" --transport stdio obsidian -- docker run -i --rm -e OBSIDIAN_API_KEY mcp/obsidianRequires: OBSIDIAN_API_KEY (secret)
zotero-skills As a Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add wenyuchiou/ai-research-skills
/plugin install zotero-skills@ai-research-skillsCommands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
The marketplaces of zotero-skills publish no list of tools, so we do not compare tools.
Settings each asks for
The marketplaces of zotero-skills publish no settings it asks for, so we do not compare settings.
What it can do: Obsidian · What it can do: zotero-skills · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from the Docker MCP Catalog (desktop.docker.com/mcp/catalog) and Docker Hub. Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.