Upgrade StorageIbis: a free, open-source "cite from anywhere" picker that reads Zotero through the local API
Hi all,
I'm a student building Ibis (https://github.com/ibiscite/ibis), a free, open-source (AGPL) desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux. You press a shortcut in any app, search your Zotero library (or a Better BibTeX `.bib` export), and get a citation key or a formatted citation for wherever you're writing: Markdown, LaTeX, Typst, email, slides. It's meant to complement Zotero, not replace any part of it.
A few commitments, because I know third-party tools have caused trouble before:
- Ibis only uses documented interfaces: Zotero's local API and Better BibTeX's exports. It never reads or writes `zotero.sqlite`.
- It's read-only today. Writing (for example "add this DOI to Zotero") will only ever be opt-in, go through Zotero's official API, show what it will change first, and be undoable.
- It works offline and has no telemetry.
- I test against recorded responses from each Zotero version, so a Zotero update shouldn't break it silently. If something does break, Ibis says what is wrong instead of failing quietly.
Two questions for the Zotero developers, if they have a moment:
1. Is the local API's write support in Zotero 10 the route you'd want third-party tools to use for adding items, or would you prefer something else?
2. Is there anything you'd like tools like this to avoid doing, for example polling frequency, or which endpoints to use?
And for everyone: what small, annoying thing in your citing workflow would you most like a fast keyboard tool to handle? Feedback is very welcome here or on GitHub Discussions.
This is still early days for the app, hopefully will have news soon once I think it is stable enough to share widely. My way to saying thanks to the incredible open-source devs who have helped students and many other people like me historically.
Thanks for Zotero, and to Emiliano for Better BibTeX. Ibis wouldn't make sense without them.
I'm a student building Ibis (https://github.com/ibiscite/ibis), a free, open-source (AGPL) desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux. You press a shortcut in any app, search your Zotero library (or a Better BibTeX `.bib` export), and get a citation key or a formatted citation for wherever you're writing: Markdown, LaTeX, Typst, email, slides. It's meant to complement Zotero, not replace any part of it.
A few commitments, because I know third-party tools have caused trouble before:
- Ibis only uses documented interfaces: Zotero's local API and Better BibTeX's exports. It never reads or writes `zotero.sqlite`.
- It's read-only today. Writing (for example "add this DOI to Zotero") will only ever be opt-in, go through Zotero's official API, show what it will change first, and be undoable.
- It works offline and has no telemetry.
- I test against recorded responses from each Zotero version, so a Zotero update shouldn't break it silently. If something does break, Ibis says what is wrong instead of failing quietly.
Two questions for the Zotero developers, if they have a moment:
1. Is the local API's write support in Zotero 10 the route you'd want third-party tools to use for adding items, or would you prefer something else?
2. Is there anything you'd like tools like this to avoid doing, for example polling frequency, or which endpoints to use?
And for everyone: what small, annoying thing in your citing workflow would you most like a fast keyboard tool to handle? Feedback is very welcome here or on GitHub Discussions.
This is still early days for the app, hopefully will have news soon once I think it is stable enough to share widely. My way to saying thanks to the incredible open-source devs who have helped students and many other people like me historically.
Thanks for Zotero, and to Emiliano for Better BibTeX. Ibis wouldn't make sense without them.