bibsync

bibsync synchronizes BibTeX files from citation keys in LaTeX sources. It is inspired by adstex, with provider support for both NASA ADS and InspireHEP.

The primary workflow is to cite papers by identifier, especially arXiv ID:

\citep{2404.14498}
\citet{arXiv:2312.00752}

Then run:

bibsync main.tex -o references.bib

bibsync scans the TeX file, resolves missing identifier-like citekeys through NASA ADS and/or InspireHEP, rewrites provider BibTeX entries so the citekey stays the key used in TeX, and merges the result into the output .bib file.

Providers

By default bibsync tries NASA ADS first and InspireHEP second:

bibsync main.tex -o references.bib --provider auto

NASA ADS requires an API token:

export ADS_API_TOKEN="..."

You can choose a single provider:

bibsync main.tex -o references.bib --provider ads
bibsync main.tex -o references.bib --provider inspire

InspireHEP supports arXiv IDs and DOIs. NASA ADS supports arXiv IDs, DOIs, and ADS bibcodes.

Existing Bibliographies

If the TeX source contains \bibliography{references}, bibsync can discover references.bib automatically:

bibsync main.tex

Additional read-only bibliographies can be used to avoid duplicating entries:

bibsync main.tex -o references.bib -r shared.bib software.bib

Use --merge-other to copy matching entries from those read-only files into the main output file.

To update a bibliography in place, pass a single .bib file:

bibsync references.bib --force-regenerate

Pre-commit

The repository includes .pre-commit-hooks.yaml, so other projects can use bibsync as a pre-commit hook.

Example configuration:

repos:
    - repo: https://github.com/isaac-cf-wong/bibsync
      rev: v0.1.0
      hooks:
          - id: bibsync
            args: [--provider, inspire, --output, references.bib]

The hook runs bibsync --check. If the bibliography is out of date, the hook fails without writing changes. Run the same command without --check to update the file:

bibsync --provider inspire --output references.bib main.tex

For a project-local hook while developing bibsync itself:

repos:
    - repo: local
      hooks:
          - id: bibsync
            name: bibsync
            entry: cargo run -- --check --provider inspire --output references.bib
            language: system
            files: \.tex$