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 onbibtexparserv2, 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
.bibfile. - 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.
1 maintainer
Metadata
1 maintainer
Release files for bibtui 0.18.0
For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.
Source distribution (sdist)
| File | Size | Uploaded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| bibtui-0.18.0.tar.gz | 104.4 kB | Details |
Built distribution (wheel)
| File | Interpreter | ABI | Platform | Reset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| bibtui-0.18.0-py3-none-any.whl | Python 3 | none | any | Details |
Total release size: 222.3 kB
Release files / bibtui-0.18.0.tar.gz
| Download URL | bibtui-0.18.0.tar.gz |
|---|---|
| Size | 104.4 kB |
| Tags | Source |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
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BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums |
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| Upload date | |
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Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing? |
Yes |
| Uploaded via |
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|
Release files / bibtui-0.18.0-py3-none-any.whl
| Download URL | bibtui-0.18.0-py3-none-any.whl |
|---|---|
| Size | 117.9 kB |
| Tags | Python 3 |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
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BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums |
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| Upload date | |
|
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing? |
Yes |
| Uploaded via |
uv/0.12.7 {"installer":{"name":"uv","version":"0.12.7","subcommand":["publish"]},"python":null,"implementation":{"name":null,"version":null},"distro":{"name":"Ubuntu","version":"24.04","id":"noble","libc":null},"system":{"name":null,"release":null},"cpu":null,"openssl_version":null,"setuptools_version":null,"rustc_version":null,"ci":true}
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