RefKit

Parse bibliography data, render citations and bibliographies, and edit raw BibTeX from Python. RefKit accepts BibTeX, BibLaTeX, Hayagriva YAML, and CSL-JSON, with Citation Style Language rendering into text, HTML, and structured trees. Construct libraries from structured records or convert formats with loss reports.

BibDocument.apply_patch applies atomic entry and field edits and returns a new snapshot with byte changes and occurrence mappings. Existing handles retain their original values and spans. The raw editing guide covers patch operations and reference rewrites.

Documentation · Python reference · Polars

Render a citation

Install in Python 3.10 through 3.14:

python -m pip install refkit

import refkit as rk

library = rk.Library.parse_bibtex("""
@article{doe2024,
  author = {Doe, Jane},
  title = {Fast Citations},
  journal = {Journal of Citation Tests},
  year = {2024}
}
""")
document = rk.Document(library, rk.Style.load("apa"), locale="en-US")
result = document.render([rk.Citation("intro", "doe2024")])

print(result["intro"].text)
print(result.bibliography.text)

(Doe, 2024)
Doe, J. (2024). Fast Citations. Journal of Citation Tests.

Pass related citations in one ordered render call so numbering and disambiguation share the same context. Continue with the Python quickstart.

Use with agents

The refkit package includes an Agent Plugin with version-matched task guidance. An agent that can execute Python can discover the installed workflow:

import refkit.agent

help(refkit.agent)

Agent integration covers discovery and packaged resources.

Choose a workflow

• Parse and recover normalized entries and structured diagnostics.
• Edit BibTeX by source occurrence while preserving surrounding text.
• Format BibTeX with key generation, duplicate handling, and rename reports.
• Render structured output with source identity and bibliography layout.
• Run in Pyodide with the tested WebAssembly runtime.

RefKit is alpha software. Public APIs may change before 1.0.

Apache-2.0 license