GitRef

A git-based reference manager — like Zotero, but your library is a plain git repo.

What is GitRef?

GitRef manages your academic references using standard BibTeX and git instead of a proprietary database. Every paper you add — by DOI, arXiv ID, or ISBN — is stored in a .bib file with PDFs packed into a compressed archive. Your entire library lives in a git repo you control, syncs across machines with git push/pull, and is browsable on GitHub.

It's designed to be DAU-friendly: run gitref watch and all PDFs are extracted for reading. Drop a PDF into the folder and it's auto-added. Close your viewer and files are auto-repacked. No manual open/close commands needed.

Key Features

• DOI / arXiv / ISBN Lookup — Paste an identifier, metadata is fetched automatically via Crossref, arXiv, and Open Library APIs
• PDF Management — Auto-download, rename, and compress PDFs into a git-efficient zip archive
• File Watcher — Extracts all PDFs on start, auto-adds dropped files, auto-repacks on close
• BibTeX Native — Standard .bib format, no lock-in, works with LaTeX toolchains
• Terminal UI — Interactive browser with search, detail view, tagging, and collections
• Browser Extension — One-click save from any paper page (like Zotero Connector)
• Git Sync — Auto-commit, pull, push across machines
• RIS Export — Compatible with other reference managers
• Cross-Platform — Windows, Linux, and macOS

Download & Installation

pip install gitref

Quick Start

# Initialise a new library
gitref init

# Add a paper by DOI
gitref add "10.1038/s41586-024-07487-w"

# Add by arXiv ID
gitref add "2401.12345"

# Start watcher (extracts PDFs, auto-adds/repacks)
gitref watch

# Open interactive TUI
gitref browse

# Sync with remote
gitref sync

# Full help
gitref --help