bib-validate

Validate bibliography files for syntax errors, format compliance, and completeness.

Usage

npx tsx ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/validate.ts input.bib

The script automatically detects the format and validates accordingly.

Validation Checks

All Formats:

• Syntax correctness
• Required fields presence
• Entry structure

BibTeX/BibLaTeX:

• Balanced braces
• Valid entry types
• String macro definitions
• Field syntax

RIS:

• TY/ER tag pairs
• Tag format (XX - value)
• Required TY tag

EndNote XML:

• XML well-formedness
• Record structure
• Required fields

CSL JSON:

• Valid JSON syntax
• Required id and type fields
• Array/object structure

Output

Success:

✓ No validation errors found

Errors Found:

Warnings:
  [ERROR] smith2024: Missing required field 'title'
  [WARNING] jones2023: Unknown entry type 'dataset' for BibTeX

Exit code: 1 if errors found, 0 if valid.

Examples

Validate BibTeX file:

npx tsx ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/validate.ts references.bib

Validate RIS file:

npx tsx ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/validate.ts papers.ris

Common Validation Errors

BibTeX:

• Unmatched braces: title = {The {RNA} World
• Missing comma: title = "Paper" author = "Smith"
• Invalid entry type: @unknown{key,

RIS:

• Missing TY tag
• Unclosed entry (missing ER tag)
• Invalid tag format

CSL JSON:

• Invalid JSON syntax
• Missing required fields
• Wrong data types

Notes

• Format is auto-detected
• Validation is fast and non-destructive
• Use before converting to catch errors early