# 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.

Below those come journal styles from the Citation Style Language, the same
10,000+ styles Zotero and Mendeley use. The American Physical Society style
is there to start. **Another journal's style…** searches all of them by name,
for example *Physical Review D*, *JCAP* or *Nature*; the ones you use most
recently stay in the menu. A style is fetched from the CSL project the first
time and kept in your browser. When pasted into a document, the citation
keeps its italics and bold.

To copy a whole reference list, open a folder or search, then choose **Copy
papers in view as a reference list** in the command palette. It uses the
journal style you used last.

## 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](STORAGE.md#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.

## Cite my draft

**Cite my draft** (side bar, *Write*) goes through a whole manuscript and
finds the sentences that make a claim but cite nothing.

1. Open your .tex, or paste a section, and press **Find uncited claims**.
   Lightkone reads the document's text only: the preamble, the abstract,
   headings, floats, comments and the bibliography are skipped, and an
   equation stays part of the sentence around it.
2. It lists the sentences that read like claims from elsewhere ("has been
   shown", "previous studies", a measured number) and passes over those
   about your own work ("In this paper we", "as shown in Fig. 2"), each with
   its line in the source. **Show every uncited sentence** lists the rest too.
   With a Claude key, **Ask Claude which need a citation** reads every
   uncited sentence with the one before it and keeps those that need one,
   each with a short search to find the paper.
3. **Suggest papers** on a sentence (or **Find papers for all**) looks in
   your library first, in the full texts of your PDFs, then on OpenAlex for
   published work you don't have. With a Claude key, each suggestion is
   checked against its passage or abstract and marked as backing the
   sentence, related or not, and the ones that back it are ticked.
4. **Cite** puts `\cite{…}` into the sentence, just before its full stop.
   A ticked paper that is not in your library is added first, so it has a
   key. **Undo** takes it out again.
5. **Download** gives the .tex back with only the citations added; nothing
   else in the source changes. Pick `\cite`, `\citep`, `\citet`,
   `\autocite` or `\parencite`. **Download .bib** gives the entries for every
   key the new .tex cites.

The draft, Claude's reading of it, the papers suggested and the citations
chosen are kept in this browser and in your storage
(`lightkone/cite-draft.json`; in a shared or read-only library, this browser
only), so the panel can be closed and opened again, on this device or
another, without asking Claude again.

## Writing helpers

**Writing helpers** (side bar, *Write*) holds Cite my draft and two smaller tools:

- **Cite this**: paste a sentence and get the papers in your library that
  support it, best first. With a Claude key, each suggestion is checked
  against the paper and marked as supporting, related or not.
- **.bib for a .tex**: paste your LaTeX, or open the .tex file, and get a .bib
  with exactly the papers it cites, in the order it cites them.