bibtex-library-management

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Validates, cleans, and repairs BibTeX/biblatex libraries with JabRef's jabkit CLI - integrity checks, citation key generation, searching, format conversion, and pseudonymization before sharing.

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BibTeX Library Management

Maintain BibTeX/biblatex libraries (.bib files) from the command line using jabkit, JabRef's CLI toolkit.

Setup

jabkit runs via JBang — no JDK setup needed. Install JBang if missing:

curl -Ls https://sh.jbang.dev | bash -s - app setup   # Linux/macOS

iex "& { $(iwr -useb https://ps.jbang.dev) } app setup"   # Windows

Then install jabkit on the PATH (the same command also updates it):

jbang app install --fresh --force jabkit@jabref

Global flags (place before the subcommand): -p/--porcelain for script-friendly output, -d/--debug for verbose logging.

Validate a library

Run both consistency and integrity checks:

jabkit check library.bib

Or individually:

jabkit check consistency library.bib --output-format txt
jabkit check integrity library.bib --output-format txt

--output-format accepts csv, errorformat (default; machine-readable, suitable for editors), github-actions, or txt. Exit code signals whether problems were found — use it in CI.

Generate citation keys

jabkit citationkeys generate library.bib --output library.bib

Useful options:

--pattern "[auth][year]" — override the citation key pattern
--avoid-overwrite — keep existing keys
--suffix SECOND_WITH_A — duplicate-key suffix strategy (ALWAYS, SECOND_WITH_A, SECOND_WITH_B)
--transliterate — transliterate non-Latin fields before key generation

Search a library

jabkit search --query "author=smith" --input library.bib --output results.bib

The query uses JabRef's search syntax (field=value pairs, boolean operators). Default output format is bibtex.

Convert between formats

jabkit convert --input library.bib --output library.html --output-format html

--output-format defaults to bibtex. Use --input-format "*" to auto-detect the input. Apply field formatters during conversion with --field-formatters.

Pseudonymize before sharing

Replace identifying data for bug reports or datasets; writes a key file for de-pseudonymization:

jabkit pseudonymize library.bib --output library.pseudo.bib --key library.pseudo.keys.csv

Look up references

jabkit doi-to-bibtex 10.1145/3149935.3149942          # DOI → BibTeX entry
jabkit fetch --provider ArXiv --query "quantum computing" --output results.bib
jabkit get-cited-works 10.1145/3149935.3149942         # bibliography of a work
jabkit get-citing-works 10.1145/3149935.3149942        # works citing it

Extracting entries from PDF papers: the pdf-to-bibtex skill in this repository.
Full CLI reference: the jabkit skill in this repository.