Configuration

bibtui keeps its settings in a single file at:

~/.config/bibtui/config.toml

You normally never edit it by hand — change everything from the Settings screen inside the app.

The settings screen

Open the command palette with Ctrl+P and choose Settings.

Setting	What it does
PDF base directory	Where fetched and attached PDFs are stored, and where links resolve.
Unpaywall email	Used only for rate-limiting Unpaywall requests — no account needed.
OpenAlex API key	Optional. OpenAlex is always free; a free API key raises your daily request limit.
PDF download directory	The folder bibtui browses when you attach an existing PDF (a).
Auto-fetch PDF on import	When on, bibtui automatically fetches the PDF after you import an entry by DOI or paste (if it has a DOI/URL and a PDF directory is set).
Check for updates on startup	When on, bibtui checks PyPI once a day for a newer release.
Default citation style	The default CSL style for the citation preview and Shift+C.

Save with Ctrl+S.

Table columns

You can choose which columns the entry table shows, and in what order. Open the command palette with Ctrl+P and choose Table: Configure columns.

The panel lists every available column. Alongside the built-in columns (read state, priority, PDF, URL, type, year, author, journal, title, added, rating) and an optional cite key column, it offers a column for any BibTeX field found in your library — bibtui discovers these by scanning the whole .bib file, so fields like doi, keywords, volume, or publisher can all become columns.

Key	Action
Space	Show / hide the highlighted column
Shift+↑ / ↓	Move the highlighted column up / down
▲ / ▼ buttons	Move the highlighted column up / down
Reset	Restore the default layout
Ctrl+S	Save

Shown columns are marked with a filled ● in the theme's accent colour; hidden ones are dimmed. Your layout is saved to config.toml (under [ui] table_columns) and applied immediately, so it persists across restarts. The Title column always stretches to fill the remaining width — it's widest in the maximized Max table view (m).

Themes

bibtui supports the full range of Textual themes — Catppuccin, Nord, Dracula, Gruvbox, Tokyo Night and more — selectable from the command palette.

NordGruvboxLight

Automatic desktop theming

If you run Omarchy, bibtui detects your active desktop theme and matches it automatically, updating live when you switch. Pick a theme manually at any time and bibtui remembers your choice; reset it from the command palette to follow the OS again.

Citation styles (CSL)

bibtui loads citation styles from:

~/.config/bibtui/csl/

On first run it seeds this folder with common defaults:

• copernicus-publications — Copernicus / EGU journals
• apa — psychology, social sciences, education
• ieee — engineering, computer science
• vancouver — medicine / biomedical
• chicago-author-date — humanities
• harvard-cite-them-right — common across Europe and Australia

To add more, download .csl files from the Citation Style Language repository and drop them into that folder. They'll appear in the style picker.