Getting Started

This guide is designed to get you up and running with bib-ami in under five minutes. It covers installation and a simple first run to demonstrate the tool’s core functionality.

For a complete reference of all commands and options, please see the Usage & Configuration guide.

Installation

bib-ami is distributed via the Python Package Index (PyPI) and can be installed easily using pip. Ensure you have Python 3.7 or higher installed.

pip install bib-ami

This command will install bib-ami and all necessary dependencies.

A Quick Start Example

The fastest way to see bib-ami in action is to run it on a directory of your existing .bib files. This single command will merge all found files, validate them against external APIs, and triage them based on their quality.

Step 1: Prepare Your Input

Place all the source .bib files you want to process into a single directory (e.g., my_papers/).

Step 2: Run the Command

Run the following command from your terminal. You must provide your email address for responsible use of the CrossRef API’s “Polite Pool.”

bib-ami --input-dir my_papers/ --output-file final_library.bib --email "your.name@university.edu"

Step 3: Review the Output

After the process completes, bib-ami will have created two files:

final_library.bib This file contains the high-quality, “Verified” and “Accepted” entries that meet the default quality standards.
final_library.suspect.bib This file contains all entries that could not be verified and require manual review. The tool creates this file automatically using the name of your output file as a base.

A summary of the actions taken (e.g., duplicates removed, DOIs added) will also be printed to your console.

Next Step: Set Your Defaults

To avoid typing your email address every time, you can set it as a global default using the new config command. This is the recommended next step for any regular user.

bib-ami config set email "your.name@university.edu"

This command saves your email in a user-level configuration file. Now you can run bib-ami without the --email flag. To learn more about configuration, see the Usage & Configuration page.