BibRef: A VSCode Extension for BibLaTeX-friendly bibliography management

Overview

BibRef will be a Visual Studio Code extension designed to streamline your management of BibTeX and BibLaTeX bibliographies. Seamlessly integrated within VSCode, it simplifies the creation, editing, and insertion of academic references directly into your LaTeX, Markdown, or Typst documents.

⚠️ This extension is in a very early development phase, closest to idea than to MVP. This README may not reflect the already implemented features. Feel free to contribute by reaching out to me or just sending PRs directly.

Features

Features marked with a ✅ are already implemented.

• ✅ Automatic metadata retrieval using DOI or ISBN identifiers.
• Create and edit BibTeX and BibLaTeX entries quickly via intuitive forms.
• Search and organize references with advanced filtering and sorting.
• Inline citation insertion tailored to document type (LaTeX, Markdown, Typst).
• Validation and linting for cleaner, consistent bibliography files.
• Integration with existing LaTeX workflows (compatible with LaTeX Workshop).

Installation

Install directly through the VS Code Marketplace:

1. Launch Visual Studio Code.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+X (or click on the Extensions icon).
3. Search for BibRef.
4. Click on Install.

Quick Start

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+P or F1 do open the Command Palette.
2. Search for BibRef
3. Run the command of your choice.

Roadmap

Future enhancements include:

• Support for additional bibliography formats (CSL-JSON, RIS).
• Cloud synchronization via WebDAV/Git.
• PDF attachment and metadata extraction.
• AI-powered metadata enrichment.

Contributing

Contributions are warmly welcomed! Please open issues or submit pull requests on the project's GitHub repository.

License

Licensed under the GPL-3.0 License. © 2025 Heliton Martins (@hellmrf).