pdf-to-bibtex

Documents

Turns PDF papers into BibTeX entries with JabRef's jabkit CLI, pulling metadata from XMP, embedded BibTeX, GROBID, or text heuristics - builds a bibliography from a whole folder of papers.

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How to use this skill

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/blob/HEAD/skills/users/pdf-to-bibtex/SKILL.md

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PDF to BibTeX

Extract bibliographic data from PDF files and produce BibTeX entries using jabkit, JabRef's command-line 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

One-off run without installation:

jbang --fresh jabkit@jabref --help

Basic usage

jabkit convert --input paper.pdf --input-format pdfMerged --output paper.bib

Omit --output to print BibTeX to stdout. Add --porcelain before the subcommand for script-friendly output:

jabkit -p convert --input paper.pdf --input-format pdfMerged

PDF importer formats

Pass one of these as --input-format:

Format id	Strategy
`pdfMerged`	Merges results of the other importers into one best-effort entry — use this by default
`pdfXmp`	Reads XMP metadata stored in the PDF
`pdfEmbeddedBibFile`	Reads a BibTeX file embedded as PDF attachment
`pdfVerbatimBibtex`	Parses BibTeX printed verbatim on the first page
`pdfContent`	Heuristic extraction from the text of the first page
`pdfGrobid`	Sends the PDF to a GROBID service (requires GROBID to be enabled/reachable)
`pdfBibiliography`	Rule-based parsing of the bibliography section

--input-format "*" auto-detects the format (also works for non-PDF inputs).

Recommended workflow

Run with pdfMerged first.
Check the result for a doi field. If a DOI is present but fields look incomplete, fetch clean metadata instead:
```
jabkit doi-to-bibtex 10.1145/3149935.3149942
```
Validate the resulting library:
```
jabkit check paper.bib
```

Batch conversion

for f in papers/*.pdf; do
  jabkit -p convert --input "$f" --input-format pdfMerged >> library.bib
done

Afterwards generate citation keys for all entries:

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

Write metadata back into PDFs (reverse direction): jabkit pdf update --citation-key <key> --input library.bib --input-format bibtex
Full CLI reference: the jabkit skill in this repository.