Editing & citations¶
Editing an entry¶
Press e on the selected entry to edit it. bibtui offers two modes, and you switch between them with v:
- Field form — a labelled form with one input per field. Best for quick corrections.
- Raw BibTeX — edit the entry's BibTeX source directly. Best for power users and for fields the form doesn't surface.
Save with Ctrl+S, cancel with Esc. Remember that edits live in memory until you write the file with w.
Deleting an entry¶
Press Delete (or Backspace) and confirm. Deletion only takes effect in your file when you save.
Citation previews¶
The detail pane renders a formatted citation for the selected entry using a
CSL style. bibtui loads styles from
~/.config/bibtui/csl/ and seeds common ones on first run — Copernicus, APA,
IEEE, Vancouver, Chicago author-date, and Harvard. See
configuration for adding more.
Copying¶
bibtui has a copy shortcut for every common need:
| Shortcut | Copies |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+C | selected text, or the cite key if nothing is focused |
| Shift+C | the formatted citation in your current CSL style |
| Ctrl+Shift+C | the full BibTeX entry |
| Ctrl+Y | the full BibTeX entry (terminal-safe fallback) |
Clipboard over SSH
bibtui copies via the OSC 52 terminal escape sequence, so copying works even over SSH — provided your terminal supports it (most modern ones do). If a copy doesn't land, Ctrl+Y is the most compatible fallback.