Citey

Citey is a Chrome (Manifest V3) browser extension that turns software citation from a manual chore into a single-button action. A researcher highlights text on any web page, clicks the Citey toolbar icon, and immediately sees export-ready citations for any software named in the selection.

Install

Chrome Web Store

Coming soon. The Chrome Web Store link will be added here once the extension is published.

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/jring-o/citey.git
cd citey
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm build

Then load the extension in Chrome:

1. Open chrome://extensions.
2. Enable Developer mode (toggle in the top-right corner).
3. Click Load unpacked and select the apps/extension/dist/ directory.

Develop

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Start development (db-build watcher + Vite extension dev)
pnpm dev

# Start the hub dev server
pnpm dev:hub

Contribute a package

Citey ships with a curated database of software packages. The fastest way to add yours is the hub:

From the hub (recommended — no local clone needed)

Anyone with a GitHub account can contribute a package straight from https://citey.scios.tech/packages:

1. Make sure your repo has both CITATION.cff and codemeta.json at its root. Don't have them yet? Generate them in your browser:
   • https://citey.scios.tech/cff — produces a downloadable CITATION.cff
   • https://citey.scios.tech/codemeta — produces a downloadable codemeta.json
   • Commit both files to your repo.
2. Go to https://citey.scios.tech/packages → click + Add package.
3. Paste your GitHub repo URL → Submit.
4. Citey reads your CITATION.cff and codemeta.json, builds a citation in our model, and opens a prefilled pull request against this repo. GitHub forks the repo for you if needed.
5. CI validates the schema. A maintainer reviews and merges.

That's the whole flow — paste a URL, click submit, the PR is opened for you. The hub at https://citey.scios.tech walks through it as a numbered checklist on the landing page.

Citey enforces an opinionated software-citation model (per FORCE11): every entry needs a title, ≥1 author, a 4-digit year, and either a DOI or a stable URL. See the whitepaper for the full rationale.

Manually via PR

If you'd rather edit YAML directly:

1. Choose the ecosystem (pypi, cran, npm, julia, or generic).
2. Copy data/seed/_template.yaml to data/seed/{ecosystem}/{your-package-id}.yaml.
3. Fill in the required fields. The template documents the schema.
4. Run pnpm --filter db-build build to validate and regenerate db.json.
5. Open a pull request.

Acknowledgements

Citey was developed at the 2026 Software Citation Workshop.

This work was initiated at, and possible solely because of the 2026 Software Citation Workshop supported by NASA under award No (TWSC-24) 24-TWSC24-0068.

License

MIT