idlhy0218/citation-network

Citation Network Builder connects three tools researchers already use: Zotero for storing papers, OpenAlex for finding citation links, and Obsidian for taking notes. It reads your paper library from Zotero, looks up how those papers cite each other using the free OpenAlex academic database, and then writes or updates linked notes inside your Obsidian vault so you can see the citation network visually. The workflow has three steps. First, the tool pulls paper details and folder structure from your Zotero library. Second, it queries OpenAlex using each paper's DOI to figure out which papers cite which. Third, it creates or updates a markdown note for each paper inside Obsidian, with wiki-links connecting papers that cite one another. Obsidian's built-in Graph View then lets you see the citation network as a visual map, with arrows showing which paper cites which. Setting it up requires Python 3.9 or newer, a Zotero account with an API key, and an installed copy of Obsidian. After cloning the repository and installing the Python dependencies, you copy an example environment file and fill in your Zotero user ID, Zotero API key, and the path to your Obsidian vault. A test command confirms both the Zotero and OpenAlex connections are working before you run it for real. You can then run the tool interactively, picking a folder from a tree menu of your Zotero collections, or specify a folder name directly on the command line. This is intended for researchers, students, or anyone doing literature review who already organizes papers in Zotero and takes notes in Obsidian. Papers need a DOI attached in Zotero for citations to be found. Query results are cached locally so re-running the tool on the same folder is faster the second time, and any personal notes you add below the auto-generated section in a paper's note are preserved on future runs.