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Josh Glazer edited this page Jun 11, 2026 · 3 revisions

Citations

Annotation Manager can attach a BibTeX citation key to any annotation. The citation is stored inline in your note and is also exposed in the Dataview cc field.

Citation syntax

A citation marker is placed immediately after an annotation's closing =}:

Important

Place curse immediately after annotation markup; do not leave a space!

{={math/hot}every non-vertical line=}{=/{riceMathematicalStatisticsData2007}/=}
  • Format: {=/{key}/=} where key is the BibTeX entry key
  • The citation follows immediately after the annotation — no space between them
  • Multiple annotations can each have their own citation

Workflow: Zotero → Obsidian

The intended workflow uses Zotero with the Better BibTeX plugin to export references into your vault.

  1. Collect references in Zotero — add articles, books, and other sources to your Zotero library.
  2. Install Better BibTeX — the Better BibTeX for Zotero plugin generates stable, human-readable citation keys (e.g. riceMathematicalStatisticsData2007).
  3. Export to .bib — in Zotero, right-click a collection → Export Collection → choose Better BibTeX format → save the .bib file into your vault's bib folder (e.g. Meta/Bibs/ToRead.bib).
  4. Keep it updated — enable Keep updated in the Zotero export dialog to automatically re-export whenever your Zotero collection changes.
  5. Insert citations in Obsidian — use the Insert citation command (see below).

Settings

Open Settings → Annotation Manager → Bibliography.

Setting Description
Bib files folder Vault-relative path to the folder containing .bib files (e.g. Meta/Bibs). Required before you can insert citations.
Citation color Font color applied to citation markers {=/{key}/=} including the delimiters. Leave blank to inherit the normal text color.
Show .bib files in file browser When enabled (default), the plugin sets Obsidian's Show all file types option so .bib files appear in the file explorer. When disabled, .bib files are hidden via CSS.

Note: When Show .bib files in file browser is enabled, the plugin programmatically enables Obsidian's Show all file types setting. This affects all non-native file types in your vault. You may need to reopen the file explorer or restart Obsidian for the change to take effect. Clicking a .bib file opens a read-only in-plugin tab rather than an external application.

Linking a .bib file to an identifier

Each annotation identifier can have a preferred .bib file. Set this in:

  • Settings UI — open the identifier's block and enter the filename in the Bib file field (e.g. ToRead.bib)
  • Config file — add the filename to the Bib File column of the config table (see Annotations#Config file mode)

When you run Insert citation with the cursor immediately after an annotation that has a linked .bib file, that file appears first in the file picker (marked linked).

Insert Citation command

  1. Place the cursor immediately after an annotation's =} closing tag (to get the linked .bib file at the top), or anywhere else (to see all .bib files alphabetically).
  2. Run Insert citation from the command palette.
  3. Step 1 — Pick a .bib file from the list. The annotation's linked file (if any) appears first.
  4. Step 2 — Pick a citation from the alphabetized list of entries. Each row shows the citation key, author, year, and title. Type to filter.
  5. The key is inserted as {=/{key}/=} at the cursor position.

Citation in Dataview

Each annotation in the cc field includes a citation property containing the associated key (or an empty string if none). See DataviewJS Examples for query examples.

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