Bibliography Path Audit checks your saved reference path

Name: Bibliography Path Audit
Author: theluckystrike

Check bibliography paths and format samples.

MIT · no telemetry · core features free

The audit shows a trailing space, a matching BibTeX sample and a trimmed candidate path. — Open larger

version: 1.1.0
released: 2026-10-21
downloads: 18
review: Passed
health: Excellent
license: MIT
listed for: Desktop, Mobile
obsidian: 1.13.4 or later

Tests use settings fixtures and format samples; live citation releases, physical mobile devices, Windows, Linux CI and symlink escapes were not tested.

Directory facts fetched 2026-10-23 07:28 UTC from community.obsidian.md/users/theluckystrike.

About Bibliography Path Audit

You have a local bibliography that Citations or Citation Extended cannot find.

Bibliography Path Audit reads known local path fields from your citation settings. It shows warnings, a vault-relative candidate and a format sample. You review the candidate and copy it yourself.

Open and review a local bibliography path audit

Free features

Read known local fields

Choose Citations or Citation Extended and check one supported local profile. Remote and unknown sources are skipped without displaying their stored values. Citation Extended profiles use database numbers instead of custom names.

The audit lists local profiles and counts skipped remote sources. — Open larger

Show path faults

Quoted saved values reveal edge spaces. The candidate trims those spaces and normalizes vault separators. Initial slashes and hidden Markdown suffixes get warnings; the audit does not rename files.

Check a format sample

The audit inspects up to 4096 characters for a BibTeX prefix or CSL JSON records. It skips content reads above 2 MiB. A matching sample cannot validate the full bibliography.

A local BibTeX path has a sample matching the selected format. — Open larger

Offer local matches

Review up to eight matching files from the same folder. Matching ignores letter case and a final Markdown suffix. Select the candidate text and copy it after review.

The audit shows a missing path and a matching Markdown file. — Open larger

Label external paths

Windows drives, UNC paths, home shorthand and common desktop root folders remain unchecked. The audit rejects parent traversal and hidden path segments before accessing the vault adapter.

An external desktop bibliography path appears as outside the vault and unchecked. — Open larger

The release contains the free audit only; named reports and batch checks are not implemented.

Pro features

Pro costs $5 a month or $15 one time through GitHub Sponsors. One sponsorship turns on Pro in every plugin that has it.

Named local audit reports Pro

Named reports are planned work. This release does not save reports, and payment does not add features.

The settings explain the free audit and planned reports and batch checks. — Open larger

Several profiles in one run Pro

Batch checks are planned work. This release checks one selected profile per run, so choose another profile for a separate free check.

See how Pro works

Set up Bibliography Path Audit

needs

Obsidian 1.13.4 or later
Saved Citations or Citation Extended settings with a supported local bibliography path.

steps

Enable Bibliography Path Audit, then run Audit a bibliography path from the command palette.
Choose your citation tool, select a local profile, then select Check selected profile.
Read the saved value, warnings, sample result and candidate together.
If the candidate is correct, copy it into your citation tool and save its settings.
Close and reopen the audit to load changed settings, then check again.

If the app can't find a new plugin yet, try again later. Obsidian says a plugin that passes the review shows in the app within 24 hours.

How to check a local bibliography path in Obsidian

Known limits of Bibliography Path Audit

Named reports and batch checks are planned; payment adds no features in this release.
The audit reads known Citations and Citation Extended settings fields; missing files, invalid JSON and unknown schemas are unsupported.
External desktop paths remain unchecked, and a vault-relative match cannot prove that an absolute desktop path is valid.
The sample checks up to 4096 characters and skips content reads above 2 MiB; it cannot validate the full bibliography.
Local matches come from the candidate folder, with at most eight results; the audit does not search the whole vault.
The audit checks one selected profile per run and does not edit settings or rename files.
Live citation releases, physical mobile devices, Windows, Linux CI, light themes and symlink escapes were not tested.

Questions about Bibliography Path Audit

Will the audit change my citation settings?

No. It reads the known settings fields and shows a candidate for review. You copy an approved path into your citation tool yourself.

Which reference formats can it check?

It checks BibTeX or BibLaTeX with the biblatex setting, and CSL JSON with csl-json. Hayagriva, Readwise and Zotero API sources are outside this format check.

Does sponsorship enable saved reports?

No. Reports and batch checks are planned, and payment adds no feature in this release. You can check another profile in a separate free run.

Network use

After you select Sign in with GitHub, github.com receives the public client ID, read:user scope and device-flow polling requests. Signed-in checks send your token and sponsorship query to api.github.com, asking for your tier and total payment. Checks reuse positive answers for seven days, can retry failures after six hours or run on Refresh, without sending vault data.

Read the full network disclosure