Generate and Format Academic Citations
A CLI and Python library that resolves DOIs, PMIDs, arXiv IDs, ISBNs, and GitHub URLs into clean BibTeX citations.
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Why it matters
Automate the tedious process of managing academic references. This tool intelligently fetches, enriches, and formats citations from various sources and identifiers into your preferred style.
Outcomes
What it gets done
Generate citations from DOIs, arXiv IDs, titles, or URLs.
Batch process multiple references for efficient citation generation.
Search academic literature using keywords across multiple databases.
Format citations in BibTeX, APA, or MLA styles with metadata enrichment.
Install
Add it to your toolbox
Run in your project directory:
curl -fsSL https://spark.entire.vc/get/vb-onecite | bash Capabilities
Tools your agent gets
Generates a single citation from DOI, arXiv ID, title, or URL in various formats.
Processes a list of references in batch mode for multiple citations.
Searches academic literature by keywords across various databases.
Overview
OneCite MCP Server
A CLI and Python library resolving DOIs, PMIDs, arXiv IDs, ISBNs, and GitHub URLs into consistent BibTeX entries via a 4-stage clean/query/validate/format pipeline across CrossRef, PubMed, arXiv, and other sources. Use to clean up mixed-format reference lists into BibTeX, or in CI via the benchmark/doctor commands; the Google Scholar fallback is off by default and only for candidate suggestions, never authoritative output.
What it does
OneCite is a command-line tool and Python library for citation management. It resolves strong identifiers - DOIs, PMIDs, arXiv IDs, ISBNs, GitHub URLs, Zenodo DOIs, and DataCite DOIs - into formatted BibTeX entries through a 4-stage pipeline (clean, query, validate, format) that queries source-specific APIs (CrossRef, PubMed, arXiv, Semantic Scholar, DataCite, Zenodo, GitHub, Google Books) and fills in whatever fields each source returns (journal, volume, pages, authors, abstract). It handles 7+ citation types: journal articles, conference papers, books, software, datasets, theses, and preprints. Plain-text title searches, which can't be resolved with confidence, are handled by a separate onecite suggest command that returns candidate matches for human review rather than being mixed into verified BibTeX output. When automatic entry-type detection is inconclusive, YAML-based custom templates provide a fallback entry type.
When to use - and when NOT to
Use this to clean up a reference list accumulated from mixed sources - DOIs copied from browser tabs, arXiv IDs from PDFs, PMIDs, ISBNs, software URLs, data DOIs, and stray BibTeX fragments - into a single consistent, auditable BibTeX file, or to look up a candidate citation from just a title.
The optional Google Scholar fallback in suggest (enabled with --google-scholar, requiring pip install onecite[scholar]) is off by default and used only as a last resort when CrossRef and Semantic Scholar return nothing, because it scrapes a service with no public API - it may be rate-limited or CAPTCHA-blocked and isn't guaranteed reproducible, which is exactly why it's exposed only on suggest for human review and never on the authoritative process command.
Capabilities
onecite process <input> is the main pipeline command, accepting a file path, - for stdin, or a raw identifier/reference string, with options for --input-type (txt or bib, auto-detected by extension when omitted), --template (fallback entry type, default journal_article_full), --output/-o, --quiet, --json (a stable JSON envelope instead of BibTeX text), --ndjson (streaming newline-delimited JSON for automation), and --fail-on-unresolved (exit code 2 if any entry can't be resolved). onecite suggest searches for candidate matches without producing BibTeX. onecite templates lists the bundled fallback templates (journal_article_full, conference_paper, book, thesis, dataset, software). onecite benchmark runs a small deterministic regression suite across DOI, arXiv, PMID, GitHub, and Zenodo/DataCite lookups, designed for CI with a configurable --min-success-rate gate and an optional --live mode against real APIs instead of offline fixtures. onecite doctor checks local installation health - package importability, bundled templates, benchmark resources, and the repository's own OneCite Skill - emitting a stable JSON envelope for automation. Exit codes are 0 success, 1 error, and 2 for unresolved entries under --fail-on-unresolved.
How to install
Install from PyPI with pip install onecite (Python 3.10+); the optional Google Scholar fallback needs pip install onecite[scholar]. It can also be used directly as a Python library via process_references(). The repository includes a self-contained skill package at skills/onecite/SKILL.md giving automation and contributor workflows a repeatable procedure for reference cleanup plus benchmark and doctor checks - it does not install itself into any local tool memory. The project is MIT-licensed.
Who it's for
Researchers and academic writers cleaning up mixed-format reference lists into consistent BibTeX, and CI/automation workflows that need a scriptable, JSON-friendly citation-resolution pipeline with deterministic pass/fail checks.
# Recommended: Install from PyPI
pip install onecite
Source README
OneCite
Citation & Academic Reference Toolkit
Features β’ Quick Start β’ π Advanced Usage β’ πΊοΈ Roadmap β’ π€ Contributing
OneCite is a command-line tool and Python library for citation management. It resolves strong identifiers such as DOIs, PMIDs, arXiv IDs, ISBNs, GitHub URLs, and data DOIs into formatted bibliographic entries, while plain-text title searches are handled by the separate candidate-only suggest command.
Researchers frequently accumulate reference lists in ad-hoc formats-DOIs copied from browser tabs, arXiv IDs from paper PDFs, PMIDs, ISBNs, software URLs, data DOIs, and BibTeX fragments from various sources. Cleaning these into consistent BibTeX output is tedious and error-prone. OneCite parses raw reference text and resolves strong identifiers against configured sources such as CrossRef, PubMed, arXiv, DataCite, GitHub, and Google Books. Plain-text title searches are exposed through onecite suggest so candidates can be reviewed without being mistaken for verified BibTeX. The result is a reproducible processing layer that reports unresolved entries and produces auditable BibTeX where metadata can be found.
Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Candidate Suggestions | Search incomplete plain-text references with onecite suggest without resolving them to BibTeX. |
| Multiple Formats | Input .txt/.bib β Output BibTeX. |
| 4-stage Pipeline | A 4-stage process (clean β query β validate β format) to produce consistent output. |
| Field Completion | Fill available fields returned by metadata sources, such as journal, volume, pages, authors, and abstract. |
| π 7+ Citation Types | Handles journal articles, conference papers, books, software, datasets, theses, and preprints. |
| Multi-Source Lookup | Uses source-specific routes for CrossRef, arXiv, PubMed, Semantic Scholar, Google Books, and others. |
| Many Identifier Types | Resolves DOI, PMID, arXiv ID, ISBN, GitHub URL, Zenodo DOI, and DataCite DOI inputs. |
| Custom Templates | YAML-based presets that provide a fallback BibTeX entry type when auto-detection is inconclusive. |
π Data Sources
Quick Start
Install and try OneCite in a few steps.
1. Installation
# Recommended: Install from PyPI
pip install onecite
2. Create an Input File
Create a file named references.txt with your mixed-format references:
# references.txt
# Add blank lines between entries to avoid misidentification
10.1038/nature14539
arXiv:1706.03762
ISBN:9780262035613
https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow
10.5281/zenodo.3233118
arXiv:2103.00020
Smith, J. (2020). Neural Architecture Search. PhD Thesis. Stanford University.
3. Run OneCite
Execute the command to process your file and generate a clean .bib output.
onecite process references.txt -o results.bib --quiet
4. View Output
Your results.bib file now contains entries of different types.
View Complete Output (results.bib)
@article{LeCun2015Deep,
doi = "10.1038/nature14539",
title = "Deep learning",
author = "LeCun, Yann and Bengio, Yoshua and Hinton, Geoffrey",
journal = "Nature",
year = 2015,
volume = 521,
number = 7553,
pages = "436-444",
publisher = "Springer Science and Business Media LLC",
url = "https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539",
type = "journal-article",
abstract = "Deep learning allows computational models that are composed of multiple processing layers to learn representations of data with multiple levels of abstraction...",
}
@inproceedings{Vaswani2017Attention,
arxiv = "1706.03762",
title = "Attention Is All You Need",
author = "Vaswani, Ashish and Shazeer, Noam and Parmar, Niki and Uszkoreit, Jakob and Jones, Llion and Gomez, Aidan N. and Kaiser, Lukasz and Polosukhin, Illia",
year = 2017,
booktitle = "Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)",
url = "https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762",
}
# ... and 5 more entries ...
π Advanced Usage
Direct String and Stdin Input
onecite process "10.1038/nature14539"
onecite suggest "Attention is all you need, Vaswani et al., NIPS 2017"
echo "10.1038/nature14539" | onecite process -
π Use as a Python Library
Use OneCite directly in your Python scripts.
from onecite import process_references
result = process_references(
input_content="10.1038/nature14539",
input_type="txt",
template_name="journal_article_full",
output_format="bibtex",
interactive_callback=lambda candidates: -1
)
print('\n\n'.join(result['results']))
π» CLI Commands & Options
OneCite provides a command-line interface with the following commands and options:
onecite process
The main command for processing references through the OneCite pipeline.
Usage:
onecite process <input_file> [OPTIONS]
Arguments:
input_file- Input file path,-for stdin, or a strong identifier/reference string
Options:
| Option | Short | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
--input-type |
Input format: txt or bib |
txt |
|
--template |
Fallback BibTeX entry-type preset when auto-detection is inconclusive | journal_article_full |
|
--output-format |
Output format (currently only bibtex supported) |
bibtex |
|
--output |
-o |
Output file path (default: stdout) | - |
--quiet |
-q |
Suppress verbose logging output | False |
--json |
Print a stable JSON envelope instead of BibTeX text | False |
|
--ndjson |
Print newline-delimited JSON events for streaming automation workflows | False |
|
--fail-on-unresolved |
Return exit code 2 when any entry cannot be resolved |
False |
Examples:
# Process a text file
onecite process references.txt -o results.bib
# Process a BibTeX file with auto-detection
onecite process references.bib
# Use stdin
echo "10.1038/nature14539" | onecite process -
# Process a direct string (DOI)
onecite process "10.1038/nature14539"
# Process with custom template
onecite process references.txt --template conference_paper
# Quiet mode for scripts
onecite process references.txt -o results.bib --quiet
# Automation-friendly JSON with unresolved-entry exit-code handling
onecite process references.txt --json --fail-on-unresolved
# Streaming NDJSON for automation
onecite process references.txt --ndjson
onecite suggest
Search for candidate matches without producing BibTeX or returning a
validation passed status.
onecite suggest "Attention is all you need, Vaswani et al., NIPS 2017" --json
Optional Google Scholar fallback. suggest accepts --google-scholar
(requires the optional scholarly package: pip install onecite[scholar]).
It is consulted only as a best-effort fallback when CrossRef and Semantic
Scholar return nothing. Because it scrapes a service with no public API, it
is off by default, may be rate-limited or blocked by a CAPTCHA, and is not
guaranteed to be reproducible - it is exposed only on suggest (candidates
for human review), never on process (authoritative output).
pip install onecite[scholar]
onecite suggest "some obscure title" --google-scholar
onecite --version
Display the installed OneCite version.
Usage:
onecite --version
onecite version
Alternative command to display version information.
Usage:
onecite version
onecite templates
List the bundled fallback BibTeX templates and the fields they request.
Usage:
onecite templates
onecite templates --json
onecite benchmark
Run a small deterministic regression suite for covered DOI lookup, arXiv
lookup, PMID/PubMed lookup, GitHub software URLs, Zenodo/DataCite dataset
DOIs, and mixed valid/invalid batches. The command is designed for CI and
automation workflows that need a machine-readable pass/fail check; it is not
a comprehensive citation-accuracy benchmark.
Usage:
onecite benchmark [OPTIONS]
Options:
| Option | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
--cases |
Path to a custom benchmark suite JSON file | bundled golden cases |
--min-success-rate |
Minimum covered-case pass rate required for exit code 0 |
1.0 |
--json |
Print the benchmark report as JSON | False |
--live |
Use live external APIs instead of bundled offline fixtures | False |
Examples:
onecite benchmark
onecite benchmark --json
onecite benchmark --live --json
onecite benchmark --cases my_cases.json --min-success-rate 1.0 --json
The repository baseline record is stored at benchmarks/leaderboard.json, with
reproduction instructions in benchmarks/README.md.
onecite doctor
Check the local installation health for automation and CI. The doctor
command checks package importability, bundled templates, packaged benchmark
resources, the repository-contained OneCite Skill, and the offline benchmark
regression check.
Usage:
onecite doctor
onecite doctor --json
The JSON output is a stable envelope with schema_version, tool,command, status, environment, summary, and checks fields.
OneCite Skill for Automated Workflows
The repository includes a local skill package at skills/onecite/SKILL.md.
It gives automation and contributor workflows a repeatable procedure for
reference cleanup, benchmark and doctor checks, and explicit
reporting of unresolved entries.
The skill is repository-contained and does not install itself into any local
tool memory.
Input Type Auto-Detection
When --input-type is not specified, OneCite automatically detects the input type:
- Files ending with
.bibare treated as BibTeX format - All other files and strings are treated as plain text
Available Templates
OneCite supports several template presets for different entry types:
journal_article_full- Full journal article entry (default)conference_paper- Conference proceedings paperbook- Book entrythesis- Thesis/dissertation entrydataset- Dataset entrysoftware- Software/code entry
Exit Codes
0- Success1- Error occurred (invalid input, processing failure, etc.)2- One or more entries were unresolved when--fail-on-unresolvedwas used
For onecite benchmark and onecite doctor, exit code 0 means the
configured checks passed and exit code 1 means at least one check failed.
πΊοΈ Roadmap
- OneCite Skill - Repository-contained operating guide for local citation-cleanup workflows
- Benchmarking - Small deterministic regression suite, configurable pass-rate gate, and baseline record
- Enhanced CLI - Automation-friendly JSON, NDJSON, summaries, and exit codes for reference processing
π€ Contributing
Contributions are always welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for development guidelines and instructions on how to submit a pull request.
π License
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.
OneCite
Star on GitHub β’ Web App β’ π Report an Issue β’ Discussions
FAQ
Common questions
Discussion
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