Zhihu-Collections-MCP

Exports Zhihu collection(s) (public and private) to Markdown files, optionally downloading embedded images and producing Obsidian-compatible output. Includes a configurable MCP server (stdio-based) with tools to list collections, export a collection, get collection info, and search collections using a local config.

Evaluated Mar 30, 2026 (44d ago)

Repo ↗ Automation mcp scraping markdown obsidian python archiving knowledge-base

⚙ Agent Friendliness

/ 100

Can an agent use this?

🔒 Security

/ 100

Is it safe for agents?

⚡ Reliability

/ 100

Does it work consistently?

Score Breakdown

⚙ Agent Friendliness

MCP Quality

Documentation

Error Messages

Auth Simplicity

Rate Limits

🔒 Security

TLS Enforcement

Auth Strength

Scope Granularity

Dep. Hygiene

Secret Handling

The tool uses a local cookies.json file for private access (prone to leakage if mishandled). No details are provided on secret redaction/logging practices, cookie storage protections, or least-privilege controls for MCP operations. TLS enforcement is assumed via typical HTTPS usage to Zhihu, but not explicitly documented.

⚡ Reliability

Uptime/SLA

Version Stability

Breaking Changes

Error Recovery

Best When

You want a local, agent-invoked workflow that exports specified Zhihu collection URLs into a predictable folder structure with debug artifacts for troubleshooting.

Avoid When

You need a hosted, officially supported API/webhook service or you cannot manage authentication cookies securely.

Use Cases

• Bulk export of Zhihu collections to a local knowledge base (Markdown/Obsidian).
• Automated retrieval + saving of Zhihu collection content for offline reading.
• Using an AI agent to trigger exports and manage output artifacts via MCP tools.
• Creating local archives of articles and their images for note-taking workflows.

Not For

• Real-time synchronization or incremental mirroring with strict freshness guarantees.
• High-scale/enterprise-grade scraping infrastructure with documented rate-limit handling.
• Use where providing Zhihu authentication cookies is not acceptable.

Interface

REST API

GraphQL

gRPC

MCP Server

Yes

SDK

Webhooks

Authentication

Methods: cookies.json (Zhihu cookies for private collections)

OAuth: No Scopes: No

Authentication (for private collections) is performed by providing a local cookies.json file. No OAuth or explicit scopes are described for the tool/MCP interface.

Pricing

Free tier: No

Requires CC: No

Open-source/tooling style pricing cannot be determined from provided data.

Agent Metadata

Pagination

none

Idempotent

True

Retry Guidance

Not documented

Known Gotchas

⚠ Relies on local config.json listing collection URLs; MCP tools reference that config.
⚠ Private collection exports likely require cookies.json; missing/expired cookies will cause export failures.
⚠ No explicit rate-limit behavior is documented for Zhihu scraping; large exports may fail intermittently without retry guidance.

Alternatives

Browser-based manual export/copy workflows combined with a Markdown/Obsidian import tool. Other Zhihu scraping/export projects (community tools) that provide similar output formats. Custom scripts using Zhihu page fetching + HTML-to-Markdown conversion tailored to your needs.

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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-30.