Obtero

---

Obtero is an extension for obsidian.nvim that allows you to cite papers, import notes, and populate Obsidian notes using data from your Zotero library. It's loosely modeled off of the obsidian-zotero-integration plugin for the Obsidian UI.

🥜 Features

• Browse and search your Zotero collection in Neovim
• Insert inline citations directly into your notes, as well as formatted references (IEEE, Chicago, MLA)
• Auto-generate templates with reference metadata using Obsidian's template command
• Populate Obsidian notes with Zotero tags

🛍️ Requirements

The minimum requirements for Obtero are:

1. nvim >= v0.11.1
2. sqlite3 >= 3.48.0
3. zotero.sqlite3 and better-bibtex.sqlite3 that contain your Zotero metadata
4. obsidian.nvim with a picker of your choice

By default, Zotero will store these files in your Zotero data directory (~/Zotero)

🏗️ Install

lazy.nvim

  {
    "maxardito/obtero.nvim",
    dependencies = {
      "epwalsh/obsidian.nvim",
    },
    opts = {
      zotero = {
        path = "~/Zotero", -- Path to Zotero root directory 
        bibstyle = "ieee", -- Bibliography style (options: ieee, chicago, mla)
      },
      -- Sets all url fields to redirect to a url field instead of a local Zotero PDF 
      url_redirect = false,
      picker = {
        -- Optional, configure key mappings for the picker. These are the defaults.
        -- Not all pickers support all mappings.
        note_mappings = {
          -- Create a new note from your query.
          new_from_template = "<C-t>",
          -- Insert a link to the selected note.
          insert_inline_citation = "<C-l>",
          insert_full_citation = "<C-z>",
        },
      },
    }
  }

⌨️ Commands

ObteroDataExplorer

Opens up a pop-up window that displays a given Zotero entry's metadata fields, loosely modeled off of the data explorer view from the obsidian-zotero-integration plugin.

ObteroNewFromTemplate

Populates an Obsidian template file with fields from a selected Zotero entry. Location of template files can be defined in the obsidian.nvim config file.

ObteroInlineCitation

Generates an inline citation based on a Zotero entry's key. Inline citations also contain hyperlinks to either the PDF or URL of the entry, if one exists.

ObteroReferenceCitation

Generates a full bibliographic citation following a chosen style guide and inserts it into the current Obsidian note.

ObteroInsertTags

Inserts tags from a given Zotero entry into the current Obsidian note.

🗺️ Roadmap

This project is the result of a lot of procrastination while writing academic articles. I'd love for it to continue growing, and thus welcome PRs and issues. Some known places for improvement are:

• Integrating and testing a wider array of Zotero entry types (so far only Journal Entries and Books are fully accepted).
• Triple checking all edge cases for missing citation fields info to avoid redundant punctuation.
• Feature supporting Zotero note export.

Acknowledgements

The design choices here follow the structure of both obsidian.nvim and obsidian-zotero-integration, so shout out to those who have contributed to those projects.