bibtex-tool

bibtex-tool

A CLI tool that extracts metadata from PDFs and markdown files to generate BibTeX bibliography entries.

Features

• Extract DOIs from PDFs and query CrossRef for metadata
• Parse markdown transcripts with APA-style citations
• Deduplicate entries with interactive conflict resolution
• Sort bibliography entries alphabetically
• OpenTelemetry observability support
• Shell completion for bash, zsh, and fish

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.14+
• uv package manager

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/dnvriend/bibtex-tool.git
cd bibtex-tool
uv tool install .

Verify installation

bibtex-tool --version

Usage

# Generate BibTeX from PDFs
bibtex-tool generate "**/*.pdf" refs.bib

# Generate from markdown transcripts
bibtex-tool generate "*.md" refs.bib --base-dir ~/Documents

# Remove duplicates (interactive)
bibtex-tool deduplicate refs.bib clean.bib

# Remove duplicates (auto-keep first)
bibtex-tool deduplicate refs.bib clean.bib --auto

# Sort entries alphabetically
bibtex-tool sort refs.bib sorted.bib

# Enable verbose output
bibtex-tool generate "**/*.pdf" refs.bib -vv

Command Reference

Command	Description
generate PATTERN OUTPUT	Extract metadata and create .bib entries
deduplicate INPUT OUTPUT	Remove duplicate entries by citation key
sort INPUT OUTPUT	Sort entries alphabetically (a-z, then 0-9)
completion generate SHELL	Generate shell completion script

Global Options

Option	Description
-v, -vv, -vvv	Verbosity level (INFO, DEBUG, TRACE)
--telemetry	Enable OpenTelemetry tracing
--version	Show version
--help	Show help

Shell Completion

# Bash (add to ~/.bashrc)
eval "$(bibtex-tool completion generate bash)"

# Zsh (add to ~/.zshrc)
eval "$(bibtex-tool completion generate zsh)"

# Fish
bibtex-tool completion generate fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/bibtex-tool.fish

Development

make install      # Install dependencies
make check        # Run lint, typecheck, test, security
make pipeline     # Full CI pipeline

See CLAUDE.md for detailed development documentation.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Author

Dennis Vriend - @dnvriend