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Importing references

You rarely type BibTeX by hand in bibtui. There are two fast ways to add an entry, and both refuse to create duplicate cite keys.

Import by DOI

Press d, paste a DOI, and bibtui fetches the full metadata online and builds the entry for you.

Importing an entry by DOI

This is the quickest way to add a paper you found in a browser or a reference list — copy the DOI, press d, paste, done.

PDFs are fetched automatically

With Auto-fetch PDF on import enabled (the default), bibtui downloads the open-access PDF right after import — so a DOI often becomes a fully-linked entry, PDF and all, in one step. It needs a DOI or URL on the entry and a PDF directory set. Turn it off in settings if you'd rather fetch manually with f.

Paste raw BibTeX

If you already have a BibTeX snippet (for example from a publisher's "cite this" button or Google Scholar), press Ctrl+V to paste it directly as a new entry.

Cite-key conflicts

Both methods check your library for an existing entry with the same cite key:

  • If a different paper already uses the key, bibtui assigns the next free lowercase suffix — Goelles2025, then Goelles2025a, Goelles2025b, and so on.
  • If the key and title match an existing entry, the import is rejected as a duplicate, so you don't end up with the same paper twice.

Unify cite keys

Imported references can arrive with inconsistent keys. From the command palette (Ctrl+P) choose Library: Unify citekeys (AuthorYear) to normalise every key to the AuthorYear convention. Entries that already match are left untouched.

Warning

Changing cite keys can break \cite{...} references in existing LaTeX documents. Run this on a fresh library, or be ready to update your manuscripts — and since your .bib is under version control, you can always review the diff first.