explaingit

steeliron550-ui/search-bibtex

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

143TypeScriptAudience · researcherComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

TLDR

A command-line tool that finds accurate BibTeX citation data for academic papers by querying multiple scholarly databases and letting you pick the best match.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((PolyCite))
    What it does
      Finds citation data
      Fixes AI hallucinated refs
      Updates existing bibliographies
    Sources queried
      DBLP
      arXiv
      Crossref
      OpenAlex
      Semantic Scholar
    Tech stack
      TypeScript
      pnpm
      Prebuilt binaries
    Use cases
      Generate BibTeX from PDF
      Refresh old bibliography
      Batch process many papers
    Config
      TOML settings
      Source priority
      Scoring weights

Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Generate correct BibTeX entries for a paper by giving the tool a PDF or title.

USE CASE 2

Fix inaccurate references that an AI assistant generated for a bibliography.

USE CASE 3

Refresh an existing bibliography file with updated metadata while keeping citation keys intact.

USE CASE 4

Batch process a large stack of papers to build a bibliography file automatically.

What is it built with?

TypeScriptpnpmTOML

How does it compare?

steeliron550-ui/search-bibtexopen-builders/pumpfun-bundler-pump.fun-bundler-solana-token-bundler-botopenai/openai-deno-build
Stars143143143
LanguageTypeScriptTypeScriptTypeScript
Last pushed2024-10-30
MaintenanceStale
Setup difficultyeasymoderateeasy
Complexity2/54/52/5
Audienceresearcherdeveloperdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Ships as prebuilt binaries so no Node.js install is required, source builds need pnpm and a Makefile.

The README does not state a license.

In plain English

PolyCite is a command-line tool that helps researchers find accurate citation data for academic papers. When writing a paper, authors need to list references in a specific format called BibTeX. Doing this by hand is slow, and using AI assistants to generate references often produces errors such as wrong authors, wrong years, or papers that do not exist at all. This tool is built to solve those problems. Given a PDF of a paper, a title string, or an existing bibliography file, the tool contacts multiple academic databases at once: DBLP, arXiv, Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, and DOI resolution services. It collects candidate results, scores them by how well they match the title, authors, year, and identifiers, then presents a ranked list for the user to pick from. An interactive terminal menu lets the user navigate candidates with keyboard shortcuts, filter results, and confirm a choice. For scripts or automated pipelines, a flag lets the user select a result by index without any interactive prompt. The tool can also update an existing bibliography file in place: it re-queries each entry, replaces the metadata with fresher data from the databases, and keeps the original citation keys intact so references in the paper text do not break. Batch processing is supported for working through many papers at once. Distribution is through pre-built binaries for each platform placed in the repository's dist-bin folder, so no Node.js installation is required to run it. Source builds use pnpm and a Makefile. Configuration lives in a TOML file where the user can set source priority order, scoring weights for each field, how many candidates to return, and whether sources are queried in parallel. The README is written primarily in Chinese with English documentation available in a separate file.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to install PolyCite and generate a BibTeX entry from a paper PDF.
Prompt 2
Walk me through updating an existing bibliography file in place with fresher metadata using this tool.
Prompt 3
How do I configure the TOML file to change which citation databases are queried first?
Prompt 4
Explain how to batch process a folder of papers with this tool without the interactive prompt.

Frequently asked questions

What is search-bibtex?

A command-line tool that finds accurate BibTeX citation data for academic papers by querying multiple scholarly databases and letting you pick the best match.

What language is search-bibtex written in?

Mainly TypeScript. The stack also includes TypeScript, pnpm, TOML.

What license does search-bibtex use?

The README does not state a license.

How hard is search-bibtex to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is search-bibtex for?

Mainly researcher.

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