The picker uses the BibTeX entry type (e.g.,Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/chrisgrieser/alfred-bibtex-citation-picker/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
@article, @book) to select a display icon, making it easy to visually distinguish different reference types at a glance.
Entry Type Icons
Each BibTeX entry type maps to a PNG icon file stored in the workflow’sicons/ folder. The picker resolves the icon by lowercasing the entry type and looking for icons/{entrytype}.png.
| Entry type | Icon file | Description |
|---|---|---|
@article | article.png | Journal articles |
@book | book.png | Books |
@inbook | inbook.png | Sections within a book |
@incollection | incollection.png | Book chapters |
@inproceedings | inproceedings.png | Conference papers |
@mastersthesis | mastersthesis.png | Master’s theses |
@thesis | thesis.png | Theses (general) |
@techreport | techreport.png | Technical reports |
@report | report.png | Reports |
@unpublished | unpublished.png | Preprints, working papers |
@software | software.png | Software references |
@patent | patent.png | Patents |
@online | online.png | Online resources |
@webpage | webpage.png | Web pages |
@misc | misc.png | Miscellaneous entries |
@comment | comment.png | BibTeX comment entries |
| Any other type | Alfred default | Fallback when no matching PNG is found |
You can add support for additional entry types simply by placing a PNG file named
{entrytype}.png in the workflow’s icons/ folder — no code changes required. The entry type is lowercased before the icon lookup, so @Article resolves to article.png.Indexed BibTeX Fields
The following fields are parsed from each.bib entry and used for search matching, display in Alfred’s result list, or citation actions.
| Field | Used for |
|---|---|
citekey | Primary identifier; searchable with the @ prefix (e.g., @Grieser2022) |
title | Displayed as the Alfred result title; searched by default |
author | Displayed in the subtitle; searched by last name |
editor | Displayed in the subtitle when no author is present; searched by last name |
year | Displayed in the subtitle; matched as a 4-digit or 2-digit year depending on match_year_type |
date | Parsed identically to year; 4-digit year extracted automatically |
origyear | Displayed alongside year as year [origyear] (e.g., 2010 [1965]) |
journal | Displayed in the subtitle for @article entries; searched |
booktitle | Displayed in the subtitle for @incollection / @inbook entries; searched |
volume | Appended to the journal display (e.g., Nature 42) |
issue | Appended to the journal display in parentheses (e.g., Nature 42(3)) |
url | Opened with ⌃↵; copied with ⌘C; used for QuickLook preview |
doi | When no url is present, generates https://doi.org/{doi} as the URL |
abstract | Shown in Alfred’s Large Type view (⌘L) together with title and keywords |
keywords | Searchable with the # prefix (e.g., #sociology); count shown as 🏷 n |
file | Path to an attachment; opened with ⌃⌥⌘↵ |
local-url | Alternate attachment field (Bookends-style); used identically to file |
attachment | Alternate attachment field; used identically to file |
When an entry has multiple attachment fields (
file, local-url, attachment), the last one parsed wins. If there are multiple paths inside a single field, the first attachment is opened.Display Format
Each entry in the Alfred result list is rendered as:Icon meanings
| Icon | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🌐 | Entry has a URL or DOI |
| 📓 | Entry has a literature note in the configured folder |
| 📕 | Entry has a PDF in the configured folder |
| 📄 | Entry has an abstract |
| 🏷 n | Entry has n keywords (tags) |
| 📎 | Entry has a file, local-url, or attachment field |
| 2️⃣ | Entry comes from the secondary library (prefix on title) |
Author and editor display
- With authors: last names shown, joined with
&for two authors, or “et al.” for three or more. - With editors but no authors: same formatting, with
(Ed.)or(Eds.)appended after the name(s). - With neither: the name field is left blank.