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Writing with your library

Citation keys

Every paper has a BibTeX citation key, such as Hinton2012-ab. Imported keys are kept, new ones are made in Paperpile's style, and a key never changes once given, so your LaTeX keeps compiling. Tap the key in a paper's details to copy it.

Copying a citation

Cite, in a paper's details, copies it formatted as a short post line, APA, Markdown, a LaTeX \cite{…}, or a BibTeX entry.

The library as BibTeX

lightkone/library.bib in your storage is rewritten on every save, with the whole library. The download button at the top exports the papers in the current view as a .bib, so open a folder or search first to export part of the library.

A folder's .bib in GitHub, for Overleaf

Overleaf can pull a .bib from a GitHub repository. Lightkone keeps one up to date:

  1. Make a GitHub token with Contents: read and write on the repository (see Private GitHub repository), and add it under Settings → BibTeX sync to GitHub. If your library itself lives on GitHub and that token can reach the repository, it is used when this one is empty.
  2. Open a folder (or All papers) and press Sync .bib. Choose the repository and the file path, for example refs/thesis.bib.

From then on, whenever papers in that folder change, Lightkone rewrites the file with a commit. In Overleaf, link the file from GitHub.

Watch my manuscript

Watch my manuscript (side bar, Write) keeps a manuscript's .bib in step with what the manuscript actually cites. Point it at the GitHub repository and folder holding your .tex files. Lightkone reads every \cite{…}, writes a .bib with exactly those papers, and lists any keys your library doesn't have so you can add them. Entries already in the .bib for keys your library lacks are kept as they are. It checks again each time Lightkone opens.

Writing helpers

Writing helpers (side bar, Write) has two tools:

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