Zotero Citation Helper

VS Code extension for inserting Zotero citations into TeX documents and syncing matching Better BibTeX entries into a .bib file.

Current capabilities

• Better BibTeX health check
• search local Zotero items through Better BibTeX JSON-RPC
• insert \cite{...} and related citation commands into .tex files
• export matching Better BibTeX entries into a configured .bib file
• sync missing entries for the current TeX document

Setup

1. Install Zotero 8 and Better BibTeX 8.
2. Make sure Zotero is running.
3. Open this project in VS Code and run the extension in the Extension Development Host.
4. Configure zotero.bib.path if your bibliography file is not references.bib.

Local development

1. Run npm run mock-bbt to start a local Better BibTeX mock server.
2. Open fixtures/sample/main.tex in the Extension Development Host.
3. Press F5 to launch the extension (configured in .vscode/launch.json).
4. Run Zotero: Insert Citation and search for smith or wang.
5. Verify that fixtures/sample/references.bib is updated.

Validation

• npm run check verifies runtime syntax and runs smoke tests for citation parsing and .bib entry splitting.

Commands

• Zotero: Health Check
• Zotero: Insert Citation
• Zotero: Insert Citation With Command
• Zotero: Sync Bib For Current File
• Zotero: Sync Bib For Workspace
• Zotero: Reveal Citation In Zotero
• Zotero: Open Associated PDF

Notes

• The extension expects Better BibTeX at http://127.0.0.1:23119/better-bibtex by default.
• Citation keys are always sourced from Better BibTeX.
• The .bib merge mode defaults to missingOnly to avoid overwriting manual edits.
• A mock Better BibTeX JSON-RPC server is provided in scripts/mock-bbt-server.js for local extension development.
• Reveal Citation In Zotero uses a zotero://select/... URI when Better BibTeX returns a Zotero item key.