Zotero Citation for LaTeX

A Visual Studio Code extension that brings Zotero's powerful citation management directly into your LaTeX workflow. Insert citations from your Zotero library with a simple command, and let the extension handle BibTeX file management automatically with intelligent duplicate detection.

Demo

✨ Features

🎯 Smart Citation Insertion

Code Completion: Type \zoteroCite and get IntelliSense suggestions
Automatic Trigger: Complete the command to instantly open Zotero's native picker
Multiple Citations: Select one or multiple references at once
Smart Appending: Automatically detects if you're inside an existing \cite{} and appends keys instead of creating nested commands
Auto-Cleanup: Removes \zoteroCite trigger if you cancel the picker

Citation Insertion

📚 BibTeX Management

Auto-Fetch: Retrieves BibTeX entries directly from Zotero via Better BibTeX
Intelligent Duplicate Detection: Multi-dimensional duplicate detection before insertion
- Citation key matching
- DOI matching
- Title similarity (>85%)
- Author + Year combination (>80%)
User Control: Choose how to handle duplicates (skip, replace, or keep both)
Clean Entries: Automatically removes unwanted fields (annotation, file, etc.) from BibTeX entries
Configurable Cleaning: Customize which fields to remove via settings
Robust Export: Handles invalid citation keys gracefully, skipping problematic entries

🔍 Intelligent Duplicate Detection

Automatic Check: Scans for duplicates before every insertion
Multi-Dimensional Analysis:
- Exact citation key match
- DOI comparison (case-insensitive)
- Title similarity using Levenshtein distance
- Author + Year combination matching
Interactive Dialog: Choose how to handle detected duplicates
- Skip duplicates (add only new entries)
- Replace existing (update with new versions)
- Keep both (allow duplicates)
- Cancel operation
Manual Scan: Run duplicate detection on entire .bib file anytime

Duplicate Detection

🎛️ Status Bar Integration

Connection Monitor: Real-time Zotero connection status indicator
- ✓ Green check when connected
- ✗ Red X when disconnected
- Auto-checks every 10 seconds
- Prevents concurrent API calls
Quick .bib Selection: Click to select your target bibliography file
- Shows current file name
- One-click file switching
- Option to save as default

Status Bar

🔧 Smart Features

Inside \cite{} Detection: Type \zoteroCite inside an existing \cite{key1} and it will append new keys: \cite{key1,key2,key3}
Workspace Integration: Supports workspace-relative paths for .bib files
Error Handling: Clear, user-friendly error messages in Chinese and English
Process Lock: Prevents trigger loops and concurrent operations

📋 Requirements

Zotero desktop application (must be running)
Better BibTeX plugin for Zotero
- Provides JSON-RPC API for citation export
- Generates clean, consistent citation keys

🚀 Installation

Install the extension from VS Code Marketplace (or install .vsix manually)
Install and start Zotero desktop application
Install Better BibTeX plugin in Zotero:
- Download from Better BibTeX releases
- In Zotero: Tools → Add-ons → Install Add-on From File
Open your LaTeX project in VS Code

📖 Usage

Basic Citation Insertion

Open a .tex file in VS Code
Type \zoteroCite where you want to insert a citation
- Use autocomplete (Ctrl+Space) for suggestions
The Zotero picker opens automatically
Select one or more references from your library
Choose your .bib file (first time only, or click status bar to change)
Review duplicate detection results (if any duplicates found)
Done! The extension:
- Checks for duplicates and lets you decide how to handle them
- Fetches BibTeX entries from Zotero
- Appends new entries to your .bib file (based on your choice)
- Replaces \zoteroCite with \cite{key1,key2,...}

Handling Duplicates

When duplicates are detected, you'll see a dialog with options:

Skip Duplicates: Only add entries that don't already exist
Replace Existing: Update existing entries with new versions from Zotero
Keep Both: Add all entries, even if they're duplicates
Cancel: Abort the operation

The extension detects duplicates using:

Exact citation key match
DOI comparison
Title similarity (>85% match)
Author + Year combination (>80% match)

Adding to Existing Citations

If you want to add more references to an existing \cite{}:

% Before
\cite{smith2020}

% Type \zoteroCite inside the braces
\cite{smith2020\zoteroCite}

% After selecting new references
\cite{smith2020,jones2021,brown2022}

Detecting Duplicates in Existing .bib File

Run the command Zotero Cite: Detect Duplicates in .bib File to scan your entire bibliography for potential duplicates. The extension will:

Parse all entries in the file
Compare each entry against all others
Report duplicates in the Output panel
Show a summary notification

Status Bar Features

Zotero Connection Status (right side of status bar):

Click to manually refresh connection
Shows tooltip with connection details
Automatically prevents concurrent API calls

BibTeX File Selector (right side of status bar):

Shows current .bib file name
Click to select a different file
Option to save selection as workspace default

⚙️ Extension Settings

Configure the extension via VS Code settings (Ctrl+,):

Setting	Description	Default
`zotero-cite.defaultBibFile`	Default .bib file path (absolute or workspace-relative)	`null`
`zotero-cite.autoAppend`	Automatically append BibTeX entries to .bib file	`true`
`zotero-cite.removeFields`	BibTeX fields to remove from entries	`["annotation", "file"]`

Example Configuration

{
  "zotero-cite.defaultBibFile": "references.bib",
  "zotero-cite.autoAppend": true,
  "zotero-cite.removeFields": [
    "annotation",
    "file",
    "abstract",
    "keywords"
  ]
}

🎯 Commands

Access via Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P):

Zotero Cite: Trigger Manually - Manually trigger citation picker
Zotero Cite: Select BibTeX File - Choose target .bib file
Zotero Cite: Check Connection - Test Zotero connection
Zotero Cite: Detect Duplicates in .bib File - Scan for duplicates in current .bib file

🐛 Troubleshooting

Zotero Not Connected

Ensure Zotero desktop application is running
Check that Better BibTeX plugin is installed and enabled
Try clicking the Zotero status indicator to refresh connection

Picker Already Running Error

Close any open Zotero picker windows in other applications
The extension prevents concurrent picker usage to avoid conflicts

Citations Not Inserting

Check the Output panel (View → Output → "Zotero Cite") for detailed logs
Verify your .bib file is writable
Ensure you have selected a valid .bib file

Invalid Citation Keys

Some entries may have invalid or incomplete citation keys
The extension will skip problematic entries and continue with valid ones
Check the Output panel for warnings about skipped entries

Duplicate Detection Issues

If duplicates aren't detected, check that entries have proper fields (title, DOI, author, year)
Title matching requires >85% similarity
Author+Year matching requires >80% similarity

🔄 How It Works

Trigger Detection: Monitors text changes for \zoteroCite command
Connection Check: Verifies Zotero is running via Better BibTeX JSON-RPC API
Picker Invocation: Opens Zotero's native CAYW (Cite As You Write) picker
BibTeX Export: Fetches entries using Better BibTeX export format
Entry Cleaning: Removes unwanted fields based on configuration
Duplicate Detection: Analyzes new entries against existing ones using multiple dimensions
User Decision: Prompts user to choose how to handle duplicates
File Update: Appends/replaces entries in .bib file based on user choice
Citation Insertion: Replaces trigger with \cite{keys} or appends to existing citation

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues or pull requests.

📝 Release Notes

0.1.0 (Initial Release)

✅ Basic citation insertion with \zoteroCite trigger
✅ Zotero picker integration via Better BibTeX
✅ Automatic BibTeX file management
✅ Status bar indicators for connection and .bib file
✅ Smart citation appending (detects existing \cite{})
✅ Configurable BibTeX field cleaning
✅ Code completion for \zoteroCite command

0.1.0 (Intelligent Duplicate Detection)

✅ Intelligent duplicate detection (citation key, DOI, title, author+year)
✅ User-controlled duplicate handling (skip, replace, keep both)
✅ Manual duplicate scan command
✅ Robust error handling for invalid citation keys
✅ Auto-cleanup of trigger on cancellation
✅ Concurrent operation prevention

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Enjoy seamless Zotero integration in VS Code! 🎉

If you find this extension helpful, please consider leaving a review on the marketplace.

Zotero Citation for LaTeX

Alkaid

Zotero Citation for LaTeX

✨ Features

🎯 Smart Citation Insertion

📚 BibTeX Management

🔍 Intelligent Duplicate Detection

🎛️ Status Bar Integration

🔧 Smart Features

📋 Requirements

🚀 Installation

📖 Usage

Basic Citation Insertion

Handling Duplicates

Adding to Existing Citations

Detecting Duplicates in Existing .bib File

Status Bar Features

⚙️ Extension Settings

Example Configuration

🎯 Commands

🐛 Troubleshooting

Zotero Not Connected

Picker Already Running Error

Citations Not Inserting

Invalid Citation Keys

Duplicate Detection Issues

🔄 How It Works

🤝 Contributing

📝 Release Notes

0.1.0 (Initial Release)

0.1.0 (Intelligent Duplicate Detection)

📄 License