Keywords & tags

Keywords are bibtui's primary way to organise a library by topic. They're stored in the standard keywords BibTeX field, so they travel with your .bib file and work in other tools too.

The keywords editor

Select an entry and press k to open the keywords editor.

• The list shows every keyword in your library, with the ones on the current entry checked.
• Type in the filter box to narrow the list, or to enter a brand-new keyword.
• Space toggles the highlighted keyword on or off for this entry.
• Enter adds the keyword you typed.
• ↑ / ↓ move between the filter and the list.
• ⌫ on a highlighted keyword deletes it from every entry — a quick way to clean up a typo or merge a duplicate tag.
• Ctrl+S saves your changes; Esc cancels.

Filtering by topic

Once entries are tagged, the k: search prefix turns your keywords into a topic filter. For example, k:albedo shows only entries tagged with that keyword. See Searching your library for the full syntax.

Reading workflow

Keywords pair naturally with bibtui's lightweight reading-status fields, which all live in your .bib file:

• Read state — cycle to-read → skimmed → read with r.
• Priority — cycle high → medium → low with p.
• Star rating — press 1–5, or 0 to clear.

Combine them with search and sorting to answer questions like "what high-priority papers on sea ice have I not read yet?" — tag with k:, sort by priority, and scan the read-state column.