Zotero <-> Visual Editor link ?broken in 1.136.0

[obfr]

Bug description

Hello,

Thank you for the very useful connection between Positron Quarto Editor with Zotero - I'm a global health PhD researcher, and this connection means my entire research workflow stays in Positron.

I recently found the local Zotero (10) connection in 1.136.0 wasn't working. Zotero doesn't show in the list of sources. I have found a work around. In summary - Zotero 10 appears not to connect with any recent version of Quarto. Zotero 9 appears not to connect with the most recent version of Quarto.

My observations:

1. Web connection appears to work (although variably, plus I work in a place with internet constraints)
2. Rolling back Zotero 10 to Zotero 9 did not resolve the issue using version 1.136.0
3. Rolling back Quarto Extension to 1.135.0 whilst using Zotero 9 restored the local connection (hooray!)
4. Updating to Quarto 1.136.0 whilst using Zotero 9 replicated the issue
5. Returning to Zotero 10 replicated the issue on any Quarto version over the past year

Please let me know if any other info is useful.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Zotero 9 or Zotero 10
2. Open Positron with Quarto Extension version 1.136
3. Check Positron Settings > Quarto > Zotero is set to local
4. Check Zotero > Preferences > Advanced > "allow other applications" is checked
5. Save a test.qmd file
6. Right click to enter visual mode
7. Insert > Citation

Actual behaviour

Zotero does not appear as a source

Expected behaviour

Zotero local library does appear a source

Your environment

Positron 2026.08.2 build 4 on macOS Tahoe

[juliasilge]

Thank you for the detailed report, and especially for the careful version bisection! That narrowed this down a lot.

I think you are right and this is a regression in 1.136.0. That release made the Quarto language server start lazily (#1059), and reworked how the Zotero library configuration is synced to it (29d77bc). In the new code, the initial config push is attempted only once, and if it fails the error is swallowed and never retried for the rest of the session. When that happens, the backend reports "success with no collections", so Zotero silently disappears from the citation source list, which matches what you're seeing.

cc @jmcphers, just as a heads up on this.

Two things would help us confirm:

1. With Zotero 9 running and the extension on 1.136.0, open the Quarto LSP output channel (Output: Show Output Channels... > "Quarto LSP") and check for a line like Error setting zotero library config. Paste anything you find here.
2. Does reloading the window (Developer: Reload Window) and waiting a few seconds before opening Insert > Citation change anything?

I'll note that Zotero 10 not connecting on any extension version sounds like a distinct, pre-existing issue rather than this regression.