Bibkit: A BibTeX Toolbox for LaTeX Projects

中文文档：README_CN.md

Bibkit is a command-line toolbox for managing BibTeX (.bib) files in LaTeX projects. It analyzes your .tex source to understand what references are actually used, and provides utilities to keep your bibliography clean and consistent.

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Table of Contents

• Installation
• Commands
  • bibkit clean
• Roadmap
• Supported Citation Commands
• Supported BibTeX Features
• Contributing
• License

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Installation

# From PyPI (recommended)
pip install bibkit

# Or from source
git clone https://github.com/ZBigFish/bibkit.git
cd bibkit
pip install -e .

The bibkit command is available globally after installation. You can also use python -m bibkit.

Commands

bibkit clean

Remove or comment out unused entries from your .bib files based on actual \cite usage.

# Run from your LaTeX project root
bibkit clean

# Or specify a path
bibkit clean /path/to/my-paper

# Preview first
bibkit clean --dry-run

Features:

• Auto-detects the main .tex via \documentclass; prompts for choice when multiple versions exist
• Recursively follows \input/\include to collect all citations across sub-files
• Auto-discovers .bib files from \bibliography{...} and \addbibresource{...}
• Non-destructive by default — writes a new_XXX.bib, never touches originals
• crossref parent entries are kept automatically (transitive resolution)
• Handles \nocite{*} — all entries preserved

Options:

Flag	Effect
(none)	Write new_XXX.bib with unused entries removed
--comment	Comment out unused entries with % instead of removing
--in-place	Modify the original .bib file directly
--in-place --comment	Modify original, comment out unused
--dry-run	Preview only — no files changed
--keep "key1,key2"	Comma-separated list of keys to always preserve
--bib references.bib	Process a specific bib file (overrides auto-discovery)
--no-recursive	Don't search subdirectories for .tex files

Example output:

$ bibkit clean /path/to/paper

Main file: main.tex
  (with 7 included .tex file(s))

Scanned 8 .tex file(s), found 55 unique citation key(s).

--- refs.bib ---
  Total entries: 75
  Entries to keep:   55
  Entries to removed: 20
    - spencer2016causes
    - goodfellow2014generative
    ...
  Wrote to new_refs.bib (20 entries removed).

Done.

Roadmap

Command	Status	Description
bibkit clean	Done	Remove unused entries from .bib files
bibkit merge	Planned	Merge multiple .bib files with deduplication
bibkit check	Planned	Validate .bib entries (missing fields, malformed keys, broken crossrefs)
bibkit sort	Planned	Sort entries by key, author, or year
bibkit fmt	Planned	Normalize formatting (capitalize titles, unify venue abbreviations)
bibkit diff	Planned	Show differences between two .bib files

Have a feature request? Open an issue.

Supported Citation Commands

\cite \citep \citet \citeauthor \citeyear \citealp \citealt \parencite \textcite \footcite \autocite \supercite \fullcite \Cite \Citep \Citet (capitalized) \cite* (starred)

Supports optional arguments (\cite[page 3]{key}), multi-key (\cite{key1,key2}), and \nocite{*}.

Supported BibTeX Features

• All standard entry types: @article, @inproceedings, @book, @incollection, @misc, and more
• @string, @comment, @preamble blocks are always preserved
• Nested braces in field values ({CNN}, {\L}ukasz) handled correctly
• crossref fields resolved transitively — parent entries kept automatically

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Star History

License

MIT

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_{Built with ❤️ for researchers who care about clean bibliographies.}