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