Zenodo Skill

Interact with the Zenodo REST API to deposit, publish, version, and search research artifacts. Zenodo issues a citable DOI for every published record.

When to use

• User wants to upload a dataset, code release, paper, poster, or other artifact to Zenodo
• User wants a DOI for a research output
• User wants to update an existing deposit or publish a new version
• User wants to search Zenodo for records

Setup

Two environments — pick one and stick with it during a session:

Sandbox accounts/tokens are separate from production. Always test new workflows in sandbox first — published production records cannot be deleted.

Required token scopes: deposit:write and deposit:actions.

Export the token before running commands:

export ZENODO_TOKEN=...        # never inline the token in commands you show the user
export ZENODO_BASE=https://sandbox.zenodo.org/api   # or https://zenodo.org/api

If ZENODO_TOKEN is unset, ask the user for it (and which environment) before proceeding.

Core workflow: deposit a new artifact

The deposit lifecycle is create → upload files → set metadata → publish. Each step is a separate API call; do them in order.

1. Create an empty deposition

curl -sS -X POST "$ZENODO_BASE/deposit/depositions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ZENODO_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}'

The response JSON contains two things you need to remember:

• id — the deposition id, used for metadata/publish/version actions
• links.bucket — the bucket URL for file uploads (new files API)

Capture them, e.g. with jq:

RESP=$(curl -sS -X POST "$ZENODO_BASE/deposit/depositions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ZENODO_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{}')
DEPOSIT_ID=$(echo "$RESP" | jq -r .id)
BUCKET=$(echo "$RESP" | jq -r .links.bucket)

2. Upload files (bucket API — preferred)

The bucket API supports up to 50 GB total / 100 files per record. Use --upload-file (HTTP PUT) — not multipart form upload. The filename in the URL is what shows up on the record.

curl -sS --upload-file ./data.csv \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ZENODO_TOKEN" \
  "$BUCKET/data.csv"

Repeat per file. For many files, loop in shell. The legacy /files multipart endpoint is capped at 100 MB/file — avoid it.

3. Set metadata

Metadata goes via PUT on the deposition. Required fields: upload_type, title, creators, description. See references/metadata.md for the full schema, allowed upload_type values, license codes, and conditional fields (e.g. publication_type, embargo_date).