Citation Extended

This plugin for Obsidian integrates your academic reference manager with the Obsidian editing experience.

The plugin supports reading bibliographies in BibTeX / BibLaTeX .bib format, CSL-JSON format, Hayagriva YAML, directly from the Readwise API, and live from a running Zotero, either via the Better BibTeX pull-export endpoint or through Zotero's own local API (Zotero 7+, no extensions required).

Quick Start

1. Install from Obsidian's Community Plugins browser
2. Export your bibliography from Zotero + Better BibTeX, Mendeley, or Paperpile, or connect a running Zotero directly
3. Add the database in Settings > Citation Extended
4. Run Citation Extended: Open literature note from the Command Palette to search and open literature notes. No hotkeys are assigned by default, so bind one in Settings > Hotkeys if you use it often

For detailed setup instructions, see Getting Started.

Features

• Open literature note: create or open a note for any reference
• Insert literature note link: insert a wiki-link or markdown link
• Insert literature note content: insert rendered template content at cursor
• Insert markdown citation: insert Pandoc-style citations with presets (textcite, parencite)
• Inline citation autocomplete: type @ or [@ to get a suggestion popover backed by the same fuzzy search index
• References sidebar: a side panel listing every reference cited in the active note, with one-click navigation, Cmd/Ctrl-click to jump to a citation in the note, and "copy bibliography"
• Zotero PDF annotation import: pull native Zotero highlights into templates as structured data (text, comment, color, page, tags) with zotero:// deep links that open the PDF at the exact annotation
• Native Zotero connection: read a running Zotero (7+) through its built-in local API, with no Better BibTeX, no export files, native citation keys, group libraries and collection scoping
• Non-destructive note updates: re-sync literature notes with the library. The plugin owns only its {{#syncBlock}} callouts and template frontmatter keys, merges changes three-way (yours + the library's) against the last synced snapshot, and shows a diff review dialog on real conflicts. Your own content is never touched
• Insert or replace with template output: select outdated text in a note (such as PDF links from before a new attachment), extract the template part that produced it, edit it or load a saved profile, preview the result, and replace only the selection. With nothing selected, insert the output at the cursor
• Readwise integration: import highlights and documents from Readwise as citable entries
• Refresh citation database: manually reload all sources

See Features for details.

Templates

Customize your notes using Handlebars templates with 25+ variables, 18+ helpers, and built-in citation style presets.

• Template Variables: all available variables
• Template Helpers: comparison, string, date, author helpers
• Template Examples: recipes for YAML frontmatter, Zettelkasten, conditional content

Multiple Databases

Load citations from multiple .bib, .json, or .yml files, the Readwise API and a running Zotero at the same time. Every search result shows the name of its database, and a citekey found in two databases is kept as two separate entries.

See Data Sources and Configuration for details.

Documentation

Full documentation is in the docs/ directory.

Network Use

This plugin accesses the network only when you configure it to, and it never sends telemetry or analytics.

• Readwise API (readwise.io): contacted only if you add a Readwise data source and supply your own API token, in order to fetch your highlights (v2) and documents (v3) as citable entries. If you set a sync interval, the plugin re-fetches from this endpoint on that schedule. Otherwise it fetches on demand. Your token is stored locally in plugin settings and sent only to Readwise for authentication.
• Local Zotero (127.0.0.1:23119): contacted only if you add a database whose source is Zotero (Better BibTeX) or Zotero (local API). The first pulls the Better BibTeX export and, when "Import PDF annotations" is on, your PDF annotations via the Better BibTeX JSON-RPC endpoint. The second reads Zotero's built-in local API. This is loopback-only traffic to Zotero running on the same machine, and nothing crosses the network.
• Documentation links (github.com): the settings screen links to the plugin's documentation. These open in your browser when you click them. The plugin makes no automatic requests to GitHub.

All bibliography parsing happens locally. Nothing leaves your vault unless you explicitly enable the Readwise integration above.

Development

npm run dev      # Watch mode
npm run build    # Production build
npm run lint     # ESLint
npm test         # Jest test suite

See Architecture for the design of the plugin.

License

MIT License.

Support

If you find this plugin useful, consider buying me a coffee.