OverCite

OverCite helps you add LaTeX citations in VS Code without leaving the editor.

Place your cursor inside a \cite{...} command, press Alt+Shift+E, review likely matches, and insert the selected BibTeX entry directly into your project bibliography. The default is fast ADS/SciX-only lookup; subject-area presets can add arXiv, INSPIRE, Crossref, DataCite, and PubMed.

If OverCite was helpful in preparing your manuscript, you can acknowledge it with:

This work made use of OverCite \citep{Shariat2026}, an in-editor citation tool for LaTeX.

Getting Started

1. Install by searching for OverCite in VS Code Extensions.
2. Open Settings and search for OverCite.
3. Choose your subject area.
4. Paste your NASA ADS or SciX API token if you want ADS/SciX search.
5. That's it. Open a .tex file, place the cursor inside a \cite{...} command, and press Alt+Shift+E to get started.

To get an ADS/SciX token, sign in to NASA ADS or SciX and go to Settings -> API Token.

More details: https://github.com/cheyanneshariat/OverCite

What It Does

• Detects the active \cite{...} token under the cursor
• Uses local sentence and context text to search the configured literature sources
• Also supports a simple author/year-only fallback mode
• Supports raw query mode for the token inside \cite{...}
• Shows ranked paper matches in a VS Code quick-pick list
• Inserts or reuses the matching BibTeX entry in the target .bib file
• Rewrites the active citation key in the source .tex file

Current Behavior

• Focus stays in the source .tex editor after insertion
• BibTeX updates happen directly through the VS Code workspace API
• The same citation parsing, source routing, raw-query logic, and BibTeX insertion logic used in the Overleaf extension are copied into this package so the two versions stay isolated

Settings

• overcite.adsApiToken (accepts either a NASA ADS or SciX API token)
• overcite.sourceProfile (astrophysics, physics, math, computer-science, life-sciences, chemistry, general, or custom)
• overcite.primarySource and overcite.fallbackSources for custom routing. 1 database is usually enough. Add 1-2 backups only for cross-field work.
• overcite.ncbiApiKey
• overcite.contextWindowChars
• overcite.citationKeyMode (authoryear, authoryear-underscore, authoryear-colon, informative, bibcode, or typed)
• overcite.bibliographyInsertMode
• overcite.defaultSearchMode
• overcite.projectBibFileOverrides

Commands

• OverCite: Resolve Citation (Alt+Shift+E)
• OverCite: Resolve Citation (Simple Search) (Alt+Shift+S)
• OverCite: Resolve Citation (Raw Query)
• OverCite: Show Diagnostics

Raw Query Mode

OverCite: Resolve Citation (Raw Query) sends the active token inside \cite{...} directly to the configured source route. Fielded ADS/SciX queries such as title:"emcee" stay on ADS/SciX.

Examples:

• \citep{Perlmutter99} with the normal Resolve Citation command for contextual mode
• \citep{Schlegel} with Resolve Citation (Simple Search) when you want author-only lookup
• \citep{10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2} for DOI lookup
• \citep{arXiv:1706.03762} for arXiv lookup
• \citep{title:"emcee"}
• \citep{author:"El-Badry" year:2022 title:"magnetic braking"}
• \citep{first_author:"Hunsch" year:1998}

This mode is useful when you already know the literal query, DOI, arXiv identifier, or ADS/SciX fielded query you want to run and do not want contextual expansion from the surrounding sentence.

Custom Shortcut

There is no default keybinding for Raw Query, to keep the default shortcut set small. If you want one, add a VS Code keyboard shortcut for overcite.resolveCitationDirect, for example:

{
  "key": "alt+shift+d",
  "command": "overcite.resolveCitationDirect",
  "when": "editorTextFocus"
}

Development

cd vscode-extension
npm test