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 $ZENODO_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{}'
The response JSON contains two things you need to remember:
id — the deposition id, used for metadata/publish/version actionslinks.bucket — the bucket URL for file uploads (new files API)
Capture them, e.g. with jq:
RESP=$(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).
Minimal example:
curl -sS -X PUT "$ZENODO_BASE/deposit/depositions/$DEPOSIT_ID" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $ZENODO_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"metadata": {
"title": "My dataset",
"upload_type": "dataset",
"description": "<p>A short description (HTML allowed).</p>",
"creators": [{"name": "Doe, Jane", "affiliation": "Example Univ.", "orcid": "0000-0002-1825-0097"}]
}
}'
Read the response — Zenodo validates here and returns 400 with field-level errors if anything is missing or malformed. Fix and retry before publishing.
4. Publish
Publishing is irreversible on production (you can edit metadata later but cannot remove files or delete the record). Confirm with the user before this step unless they're on sandbox.
curl -sS -X POST "$ZENODO_BASE/deposit/depositions/$DEPOSIT_ID/actions/publish" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $ZENODO_TOKEN"
The response contains doi and links.record_html — show both to the user.
New version of an existing record
Use this when the user has previously published and wants to release updated data/code under the same concept-DOI.
# 1. Create new version draft (returns links.latest_draft)
curl -sS -X POST "$ZENODO_BASE/deposit/depositions/$DEPOSIT_ID/actions/newversion" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $ZENODO_TOKEN"
Then follow the bucket of the new draft (from links.latest_draft → GET it → use its links.bucket) to upload changed files, update metadata, and publish as in steps 2–4 above. The new version inherits files from the previous version by default — delete any you want to replace via DELETE $BUCKET/<filename>.
Discard a draft
curl -sS -X POST "$ZENODO_BASE/deposit/depositions/$DEPOSIT_ID/actions/discard" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $ZENODO_TOKEN"
Search published records
No token needed for public search.
curl -sS "$ZENODO_BASE/records?q=climate+model&size=10&sort=mostrecent"
Query syntax is Elasticsearch — fielded queries like creators.name:"Doe, Jane", communities:zenodo, resource_type.type:dataset all work. See references/search.md for query patterns.
Conventions and gotchas
- Always check HTTP status. 201 = created, 202 = publish accepted, 400 = metadata error (read the body), 401 = bad token, 403 = wrong scope, 429 = rate limited.
- Rate limits: 100 req/min, 5000 req/hour for authenticated users. Watch
X-RateLimit-Remaining.
- Never inline the token in commands you display — use
$ZENODO_TOKEN. Don't write the token to files.
- Sandbox first. Suggest sandbox for any first-time workflow; switch to production only when the user explicitly confirms.
- Verify before publishing. GET the deposition and review files + metadata with the user before calling
actions/publish on production.
- Large uploads: for files > a few hundred MB, consider doing the curl upload with
--progress-bar and warn the user about time/bandwidth.
References
references/metadata.md — full metadata schema, upload_type values, license codes, conditional fieldsreferences/search.md — search query syntax and useful filtersreferences/examples.md — end-to-end shell scripts for common scenarios (dataset upload, software release, new version)
