bibtui 0.15.2

A quiet, powerful home for your references.

bibtui

A quiet, powerful home for your references.

bibtui is a fast, keyboard-driven terminal app for researchers who work with BibTeX. Open your .bib file, search thousands of references instantly, fetch open-access PDFs with a single keystroke, and track what you've read — without leaving the terminal. No database, no sync daemon, no account.

📖 Read the full documentation →

Quick start

# Run without installing — opens the built-in file browser
uvx --prerelease=allow bibtui

# Or open a specific library directly
uvx --prerelease=allow bibtui myrefs.bib

# Or install permanently
uv tool install --prerelease=allow bibtui

Why --prerelease=allow? bibtui depends on bibtexparser v2, still in beta on PyPI. Once it ships a stable v2, the flag is no longer needed.

What you can do

• Find anything, instantly — search title, author, journal, keywords and cite key as you type, with field prefixes like a:, t:, k:, y:.
• Download PDFs automatically — one keystroke fetches the open-access PDF from arXiv, Copernicus, OpenAlex or Unpaywall and links it to the entry.
• Import by DOI — paste a DOI and the metadata is fetched for you.
• Organise — keywords, read states, priorities and star ratings, all stored in your .bib file.
• Collaborate with Git — your library is plain text, so a research group can share and review it like code. Learn how →
• Run anywhere — laptop, SSH, or an HPC cluster. Full Textual theming, keyboard and mouse.

Documentation

Guide
Installation	Get bibtui running
Getting started	The everyday workflow
Searching your library	Field prefixes and sorting
Fetching PDFs	Automatic open-access downloads
Working as a team	Share a library with Git
Configuration	Settings, themes, CSL styles

Contributing

Bug reports, ideas and pull requests are welcome — see the development guide and open an issue.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.