bibtexmcp — BibTeX MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server that lets AI assistants read and edit .bib files directly.

IMPORTANT — AI assistants: Always use these tools to read or modify .bib files. Never use grep, sed, text editors, file-write tools, or any direct file access on .bib files. BibTeX is a fragile, whitespace-sensitive format where unmatched braces, duplicate keys, and broken encoding silently corrupt files in ways that are hard to detect and may cause data loss. These tools parse and serialise through a dedicated BibTeX library, guaranteeing structural integrity on every write.

Tools

Read

Tool	Description
`query_entries`	Search entries by key, type, field value substring, or missing field
`get_entry`	Get the full contents of an entry by citation key
`get_field`	Get the value of a single field from an entry

`query_entries`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	no	Substring to match against citation keys (case-insensitive)
`type`	string	no	Entry type to filter by, e.g. `"article"`
`field`	string	no	Field name to search within
`fieldValue`	string	no	Substring to match in the specified field value
`missingField`	string	no	Return only entries that do NOT have this field, e.g. `"doi"`
`keysOnly`	boolean	no	Force keys-only (`true`) or full fields (`false`); omit to auto-decide based on result size
`limit`	integer	no	Maximum number of entries to return
`offset`	integer	no	Number of matching entries to skip (for pagination)

`get_entry`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key of the entry

`get_field`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key of the entry
`field`	string	yes	Field name, e.g. `"author"`, `"year"`, `"title"`

Write

Tool	Description
`create_entry`	Create a new entry
`update_field`	Set or update a single field
`update_fields`	Set or update multiple fields across one or more entries at once
`delete_field`	Remove a field from an entry
`delete_entry`	Delete an entry entirely
`replace_entry`	Replace an entry's type and all fields in one operation
`rename_key`	Rename a citation key
`create_bib`	Create a new empty `.bib` file

`create_entry`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key for the new entry
`type`	string	yes	Entry type, e.g. `"article"`, `"inproceedings"`, `"book"`
`fields`	object	yes	Field name → value pairs

`update_field`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key of the entry to update
`field`	string	yes	Field name to set
`value`	string	yes	New value (braces added automatically)

`update_fields`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`updates`	object	yes	Map of citation key → `{ fieldName: value }` pairs, e.g. `{ "smith2023": { "doi": "10.1234/x", "year": "2023" } }`

`delete_field`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key of the entry
`field`	string	yes	Field name to remove

`delete_entry`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key of the entry to delete

`replace_entry`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key of the entry to replace
`type`	string	no	New entry type; if omitted the existing type is kept
`fields`	object	yes	Complete set of fields (replaces all existing fields)

`rename_key`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`oldKey`	string	yes	Current citation key
`newKey`	string	yes	New citation key

`create_bib`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path for the new `.bib` file
`overwrite`	boolean	no	Overwrite if the file already exists (default: `false`)

Validate

Tool	Description
`validate_entry`	Validate a single entry against BibTeX rules
`validate_file`	Validate all entries in a file
`convert_entry_type`	Change an entry's type, optionally renaming fields
`list_entry_types`	List standard BibTeX types with required/optional fields

`validate_entry`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key of the entry to validate

`validate_file`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file

`convert_entry_type`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key of the entry to convert
`newType`	string	yes	Target entry type, e.g. `"inproceedings"`
`fieldRenames`	object	no	Field renames to apply, e.g. `{ "journal": "booktitle" }`

`list_entry_types`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`type`	string	no	If provided, show schema for this specific type only

DOI

Tool	Description
`validate_doi`	Cross-check entry fields against Crossref DOI metadata
`validate_doi_batch`	Cross-check all DOI-bearing entries in a file against Crossref
`lookup_doi_by_metadata`	Search Crossref for a DOI given title / author / year / journal
`fix_from_doi`	Overwrite mismatched local fields with Crossref ground truth
`fill_missing_dois`	Automatically look up and fill missing DOI fields for entries

`validate_doi`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key of the entry (must have a `doi` field)

`validate_doi_batch`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file

`lookup_doi_by_metadata`

At least one of title or author must be supplied.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`title`	string	no	Title of the work
`author`	string	no	Author name(s)
`year`	string\|number	no	Publication year
`journal`	string	no	Journal or conference name
`rows`	integer (1–20)	no	Maximum number of candidates to return (default: 5)

`fix_from_doi`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key of the entry (must have a `doi` field)
`onlySubstantive`	boolean	no	Only fix substantive mismatches (default: `true`); set `false` to also fix cosmetic differences
`fields`	string[]	no	If provided, only fix these specific fields, e.g. `["year", "author"]`

`fill_missing_dois`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`type`	string	no	Entry type to filter by, e.g. `"article"`
`threshold`	number	no	Minimum Crossref score to auto-fill (default: 80); lower values fill more but risk false matches
`dryRun`	boolean	no	Report candidates without writing to file (default: `false`)
`limit`	integer	no	Maximum number of entries to process (default: 10)
`offset`	integer	no	Skip the first N matching entries (for pagination)

Patent

Tool	Description
`validate_patent`	Cross-check a `@patent` entry's fields against the US PatentsView database

`validate_patent`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file
`key`	string	yes	Citation key of the `@patent` entry (must have a `number` field with a US patent number, e.g. `"US 9,876,543 B2"`)

Import

Tool	Description
`import_from_orcid`	Import all public works from an ORCID profile into a BibTeX file

`import_from_orcid`

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	string	yes	Absolute path to the `.bib` file (created if it does not exist)
`orcid`	string	yes	ORCID iD — bare (`"0000-0001-5985-691X"`) or full URL (`"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5985-691X"`)
`use_doi`	boolean	no	Enrich entries via Crossref when a DOI is present (default: `true`)
`dry_run`	boolean	no	Preview what would be imported without writing to the file (default: `false`)

Installation

Requires Node.js 18+.

git clone https://github.com/mcroomp/bibtexmcp.git
cd bibtexmcp
npm install

Register with Claude Code (Windows)

install-mcp.cmd

Register manually

claude mcp add --scope user bibtex -- node /absolute/path/to/src/index.js

Register with GitHub Copilot in VS Code

This repo includes a workspace MCP config at .vscode/mcp.json.

Open c:\repos\bibtexmcp in VS Code.
Ensure dependencies are installed:

install-copilot.cmd

In VS Code, open MCP servers and enable bibtex from workspace config.

If you want a manual config, use this in .vscode/mcp.json:

{
	"servers": {
		"bibtex": {
			"type": "stdio",
			"command": "node",
			"args": ["${workspaceFolder}/src/index.js"]
		}
	}
}

Usage

All tools take an absolute path to a .bib file. The server is stateless — no file is held open between calls.

// Example: get an entry
{ "tool": "get_entry", "file": "/path/to/refs.bib", "key": "Smith2023" }

// Example: update a field
{ "tool": "update_field", "file": "/path/to/refs.bib", "key": "Smith2023", "field": "year", "value": "2024" }

// Example: validate a file
{ "tool": "validate_file", "file": "/path/to/refs.bib" }

Development

npm test    # run tests with Node's built-in test runner
npm start   # start the MCP server (stdio transport)

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 9 Commits
.vscode		.vscode
src		src
test		test
.gitignore		.gitignore
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
README.md		README.md
install-copilot.cmd		install-copilot.cmd
install-mcp.cmd		install-mcp.cmd
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json

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bibtexmcp — BibTeX MCP Server

Tools

Read

query_entries

get_entry

get_field

Write

create_entry

update_field

update_fields

delete_field

delete_entry

replace_entry

rename_key

create_bib

Validate

validate_entry

validate_file

convert_entry_type

list_entry_types

DOI

validate_doi

validate_doi_batch

lookup_doi_by_metadata

fix_from_doi

fill_missing_dois