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Fetching PDFs

One of bibtui's most useful features: it can find and download the PDF for a reference automatically, then link it to the entry — no manual searching, downloading, and renaming.

bibtui uses only free and legal open-access sources. It never circumvents paywalls.

Fetch a single PDF

Select an entry and press f. bibtui tries these sources in order and stops at the first that works:

  1. arXiv — for entries with a 10.48550/arXiv.* DOI or an arxiv.org URL.
  2. Copernicus — direct PDF construction for 10.5194/* DOIs (EGU journals).
  3. OpenAlex — open-access lookup by DOI or title. OpenAlex is always free and works out of the box; registering for a free API key in settings raises your daily request limit.
  4. Unpaywall — open-access lookup by DOI. Set your email in settings (used only for rate-limiting; no account needed).
  5. Direct URL — if the entry's url field points straight at a PDF.

When a PDF is found it's saved to your configured PDF directory and the entry's file field is updated in JabRef format, so the ◫ icon lights up and Space opens it.

Some publishers block automated downloads

If every source fails, bibtui tells you why. Closed-access papers with no open-access copy simply aren't available — that's expected, not a bug.

On import (automatic)

You usually don't even press f. With Auto-fetch PDF on import enabled (the default), bibtui fetches the PDF automatically right after you import an entry by DOI or paste — provided the entry has a DOI or URL and you've set a PDF directory. Turn it off in settings to always fetch manually.

Fill in a whole library

Open the command palette with Ctrl+P and choose Library: Fetch missing PDFs. bibtui works through every entry that doesn't already have a local PDF and fetches what it can.

A toggle lets you decide whether entries with broken file links should be overwritten — turn it off to leave those untouched.

Attach a PDF you already have

If you've downloaded a paper yourself, press a to attach it. bibtui shows the files in your Downloads folder with a live filter; pick one and it's copied into your PDF directory and linked to the entry.

Opening and managing PDFs

Press Space on any entry with a linked PDF to open it in your system viewer. bibtui resolves the link relative to your PDF directory, and also falls back to matching by cite key, so links created by JabRef keep working.

The PDF section in the detail pane collects every action for an entry's PDF — Open, Fetch, Add, Copy PDF, Copy path and Delete. Actions that don't apply (for example copying when there's no local PDF) are disabled.

Copy PDF — share a paper in two clicks

Copy PDF puts the actual PDF file on your system clipboard, so you can paste it straight into wherever you're working:

  • Email or chat — paste the paper as an attachment into your mail client, Slack, or Teams without hunting through folders.
  • Feed it to an LLM — paste the PDF into an AI assistant to summarise a paper, ask questions about a method, or extract the key results.
  • Drop it into a document — attach it to your notes or a manuscript.

Copy path instead copies the file's location as text — handy for pasting into a terminal, a script, or any tool that expects a file path.

Clipboard support

Copying the file uses your platform's native file-clipboard mechanism (wl-copy/xclip on Linux, osascript on macOS, Set-Clipboard on Windows). If file copy isn't available, Copy path always works.

Where PDFs live

All fetched and attached PDFs go to the single PDF base directory you set on first run (or later in settings). Keeping them in one place makes the library portable and easy to back up — or to share with a team.