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wtf is paperboy?

michaelellis003/paperboy — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

5PythonAudience · researcherComplexity · 3/5LicenseSetup · moderate

TL;DR

An MCP server that lets you ask Claude to find, queue, and send research papers or books to your Kindle or Kobo, using Zotero as the library.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Finds research papers
      Sends to e-reader
      Tracks library in Zotero
    Tech stack
      Python
      MCP server
      Zotero API
      Cloud Run
    Use cases
      Build reading queue
      Catalogue books
      Remote phone requests
    Audience
      Researchers
      Claude users
      E-reader owners

Code map

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Why would anyone build with this?

REASON 1

Ask Claude to find research papers by topic and send them straight to your e-reader.

REASON 2

Build a reading queue in Zotero that Claude can send to your device in bulk later.

REASON 3

Catalogue books and paywalled papers in Zotero without sending them anywhere.

REASON 4

Deploy your own cloud version so you can request papers from your phone.

What's in the stack?

PythonMCPZotero APIDropbox APIGoogle Cloud Run

How it stacks up

michaelellis003/paperboy1ncendium/aibusteraaronmayeux/ha-hurricane-tracker
Stars555
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Setup difficultymoderatemoderateeasy
Complexity3/53/52/5
Audienceresearcherops devopsgeneral

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you spin it up?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Needs an SMTP app password or Dropbox app credentials depending on which e-reader you use.

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

Wtf does this do

Paperboy is a tool that connects Claude to your e-reader so you can ask for research papers or books and have them sent straight to a device like a Kindle or Kobo. It works as an MCP server, which means it is a small program that runs on your computer or in the cloud and gives Claude a set of tools it can call during a conversation. Zotero, a reference management program, acts as the source of truth for what you own and have read. The tool separates two ideas: getting a paper onto your e-reader, and keeping a record of it in your library. You can do either one without the other, so a paywalled paper or a book you already own can be tracked in Zotero without ever being sent anywhere. You can ask Claude to search for papers by topic, arxiv ID, DOI, or title, and it will find candidates using services like OpenAlex, arXiv, and Semantic Scholar. Papers can be sent immediately, or added to a reading queue that lives inside a Zotero collection, and once something is sent it gets tagged so it is not sent again by accident. Claude can also help sort papers into topic based collections inside Zotero, and can catalogue full books using their ISBN or title, though books are only recorded, not delivered to a device. Sending papers to a device happens either through email, which works for Kindle and similar readers with an email address, or through Dropbox for Kobo devices, since Kobo syncs from a specific Dropbox folder. Setup is handled through an interactive wizard that asks which device you use and only requests the credentials that device actually needs, checking each one as you go. The project can also be deployed to the cloud using Google Cloud Run so that it works from a phone or the regular Claude website, not just on your own computer. Anyone given the resulting URL and a security token can use the deployment as if they were its owner, so that link should be treated like a password. The project is released under the MIT license.

Yoink these prompts

Prompt 1
Help me set up paperboy with my Kindle email address and SMTP app password.
Prompt 2
Find recent papers on a topic I'm researching and queue them in my Zotero Reading Queue.
Prompt 3
Show me how to configure paperboy for a Kobo device using Dropbox.
Prompt 4
Walk me through deploying my own paperboy instance on Google Cloud Run.
Prompt 5
Check my paperboy setup and tell me what credentials are still missing.

Frequently asked questions

wtf is paperboy?

An MCP server that lets you ask Claude to find, queue, and send research papers or books to your Kindle or Kobo, using Zotero as the library.

What language is paperboy written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python, MCP, Zotero API.

What license does paperboy use?

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

How hard is paperboy to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is paperboy for?

Mainly researcher.

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