# bibox
[](https://crates.io/crates/bibox)
[](LICENSE)
**AI agents shouldn't be hand-editing your .bib files.**
**bibox gives them commands. You get a TUI. Your bibliography stays clean.**
A terminal-based bibliography manager built in Rust. AI agents add papers, write notes, and manage collections through a structured CLI. You browse everything in a three-panel TUI and export BibTeX with one keystroke.
## Features
- **Smart import** — Drop a PDF and bibox extracts the DOI, fetches metadata from Crossref, and files it automatically
- **Multiple sources** — Add entries via PDF, DOI, ISBN, arXiv ID, URL, or title search
- **Three-panel TUI** — Collections, entries, and preview (info / notes / PDF) side by side
- **Vim-style navigation** — `hjkl`, `gg`/`G`, `{n}j`, `Ctrl+d/u`, multi-select with `Space`
- **AI-agent-friendly** — Every command supports `--json`. Notes have `--stdin`, `--section`, `--template` for programmatic access
- **Markdown notes** — Per-entry notes with section-level updates, rendered with syntax highlighting in the TUI
- **Portable home** — `bibox init` puts everything in one Git-syncable folder
- **Export** — BibTeX, YAML, RIS, CSV. Include PDFs. Copy to clipboard. Zip it up.
- **Templates** — Built-in and custom note templates with `{{variable}}` substitution
## Install
**From crates.io:**
```bash
cargo install bibox
```
**From source:**
```bash
git clone https://github.com/namil-k/bibox.git
cd bibox/bibox
cargo install --path .
```
Build dependencies: OpenSSL (`brew install openssl` on macOS, `sudo apt install libssl-dev pkg-config` on Ubuntu).
## Quick Start
Add a paper by PDF (auto-extracts DOI → fetches metadata):
```bash
bibox add paper.pdf
```
Add by DOI, arXiv ID, ISBN, or URL:
```bash
bibox add --doi 10.1145/3290605.3300907
```
```bash
bibox add --arxiv 2301.12345
```
```bash
bibox add --isbn 978-0-13-468599-1
```
```bash
bibox add --url https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.12345
```
Search by title on Crossref:
```bash
bibox add --search "attention is all you need"
```
Launch TUI:
```bash
bibox
```
## TUI
```
┌ Collections ─┬ Entries ──────────┬ Info │ Note │ PDF ──┐
│ > All (15) │ 1 kim2025 ◆ │ Title: Rust Syst.. │
│ cs (8) │ 2 dijkstra1968 │ Author: Kim, J. │
│ ml (5) │ 3 manco2017 ◆ │ Year: 2025 │
│ │ │ DOI: 10.1234/... │
├──────────────┴───────────────────┴────────────────────┤
│ / search s sort o open w web e export ? help │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
```
### Keybindings
| `h`/`l` | Focus left/right panel |
| `j`/`k` | Navigate within panel |
| `gg`/`G` | Jump to top/bottom |
| `{n}j` | Move n lines (e.g., `5j`) |
| `Ctrl+d`/`u` | Half-page down/up |
| `Tab` | Switch preview mode (Info → Note → PDF) |
| `Space` | Toggle select entry |
| `V` | Select/deselect all |
| `/` | Search (entries or collections, based on focus) |
| `s` | Sort menu |
| `o` | Open PDF (or fetch from web) |
| `w` | Open paper web page in browser |
| `e` | Export menu (selected / collection / all) |
| `y` | Copy citekey to clipboard |
| `d` | Delete entry |
| `c` | Manage collections |
| `t` | Edit tags |
| `N` | Edit note in `$EDITOR` |
| `,` | Settings (line numbers, panel ratio, export dirs, git sync) |
| `?` | Help |
| `q` | Quit |
## CLI
**Browse:**
```bash
bibox list # Show collections with counts
```
```bash
bibox list ml # List entries in a collection
```
```bash
bibox show kim2025rust # Full entry details
```
```bash
bibox search "transformer" # Interactive search
```
**Edit:**
```bash
bibox edit kim2025rust --title "New Title"
```
```bash
bibox edit kim2025rust --doi 10.1234/new # Re-fetch metadata from Crossref
```
```bash
bibox edit kim2025rust --tags-add "ml,nlp"
```
**Collections:**
```bash
bibox collect kim2025rust ml systems # Add to collections
```
```bash
bibox uncollect kim2025rust ml # Remove from collection
```
**Import:**
```bash
bibox import refs.bib --to ml
```
**Export:**
```bash
bibox export # Export all as BibTeX
```
```bash
bibox export kim2025 dijkstra1968 # Export specific entries
```
```bash
bibox export --collection cs --format ris # Export collection as RIS
```
```bash
bibox export --include-pdf --zip # BibTeX + PDFs, zipped
```
```bash
bibox export --notes-only -o ~/notes # Export all note .md files to folder
```
```bash
bibox export --collection ml --notes-only -o ~/ml-notes # Collection notes only
```
**Bulk update:**
```bash
bibox modify year=2025 --filter "collection:ml" --yes
```
**Delete:**
```bash
bibox delete kim2025rust
```
**Config:**
```bash
bibox config --json # View all settings and paths
```
## Notes
Notes are Markdown files, one per entry. Designed for both human editing and AI agent pipelines.
Initialize from a template:
```bash
bibox note kim2025rust --template ai-summary
```
AI agent writes sections programmatically:
```bash
```bash
Read note back:
```bash
bibox note kim2025rust --show
```
Human edits in $EDITOR:
```bash
bibox note kim2025rust
```
### Templates
```bash
bibox template list # List all templates
```
```bash
bibox template show ai-summary # Print template content
```
```bash
bibox template create my-review --stdin < t.md # Create custom template
```
```bash
bibox template edit ai-summary # Edit in $EDITOR
```
```bash
bibox template delete my-review # Delete custom template
```
Built-in templates: `ai-summary`, `reading-notes`. Custom templates override built-ins.
Template variables: `{{title}}`, `{{citekey}}`, `{{doi}}`, `{{year}}`, `{{author}}`, `{{journal}}`, `{{booktitle}}`, `{{publisher}}`
## Portable Home & Git Sync
```bash
# Initialize a portable bibox home
bibox init ~/bibox
# Everything lives in one folder
~/bibox/
├── db.json # Database
├── pdfs/ # PDF files
└── notes/ # Markdown notes
# Sync with Git
cd ~/bibox && git init && git add . && git commit -m "init"
git remote add origin git@github.com:you/bibox-library.git
git push -u origin master
# Or use the TUI: press , → Git → Enter to check status → Enter to sync
```
## Settings
Press `,` in the TUI, or run `bibox config` to see all current settings and paths.
```toml
line_numbers = "absolute" # absolute, relative, none
panel_ratio = [2, 4, 4] # left : center : right (sum = 10)
bib_export_dir = "." # BibTeX export location
export_dir = "~/Downloads" # Other exports location
home = "~/bibox" # Portable home (set by bibox init)
```
## AI Agent Integration
Every command supports `--json` for machine-readable output. Run `bibox agent-guide` for a complete reference.
```bash
# Full workflow: search → add → note → push
bibox add --search "attention is all you need" --index 0 --to ml --json
bibox note vaswani2017attention --template ai-summary
# Get all paths programmatically
bibox config --json
# Non-interactive sync
bibox sync --yes --json
```
| `--json` | Machine-readable output (most commands) |
| `--index N` | Auto-select Nth search result (0-based, with `--search`) |
| `--stdin` | Read content from stdin (notes, templates) |
| `--section "Name"` | Target a specific `## Heading` in a note |
| `--yes` / `-y` | Skip confirmation prompts |
| `--template <name>` | Initialize note from template |
## Tech Stack
- **Rust** — clap, serde, reqwest, ratatui, crossterm, pulldown-cmark, arboard
- **APIs** — Crossref, Unpaywall, arXiv, OpenLibrary
- **Storage** — JSON database, flat PDF directory, Markdown notes
## License
MIT