quarto-full-citation

A Quarto extension that inserts full formatted citations inline with the option of packaging PDF attachements — ideal for sharing annotated bibliographies, syllabi, and reading lists.

HTML output: PDFs referenced in the bib file field are copied to the output directory and a [PDF] link is appended.
Input is any .bib / .bibtex file specified in the bibliography YAML field.
Formatting is done entirely by citeproc using any standard CSL file.
Pure Pandoc + Lua — no R, no Python.

See also Zotero plugin that does the same thing without Quarto, with less customisation.

Installation

Copy _extensions/full-citation/ into your project, or install from GitHub:

quarto install extension petrbouchal/quarto-full-citation

Front matter

---
bibliography: references.bib
csl: chicago-author-date.csl   # any CSL style
nocite: "@*"                   # make all entries available to citeproc
filters:
  - full-citation

# Extension options (defaults shown):
full-citation-suppress-bibliography: false
full-citation-attachments: true
full-citation-all: false
---

nocite: "@*" is recommended so that citeproc processes every entry and makes it available to the extension, even if the key does not appear in the document body.

Options

`full-citation-suppress-bibliography`

Controls the auto-generated reference list that Pandoc appends at the end of the document.

Value	Effect
`false` (default)	Trailing reference list is included.
`true`	Trailing reference list is removed.

Do not use Pandoc’s own suppress-bibliography: true — that disables citeproc internally and prevents the extension from building its citation map.

`full-citation-attachments`

Controls PDF copying and [PDF] links. Has no effect on non-HTML output formats.

Value	Effect
`true` (default)	Reads bib `file` fields; copies PDFs to `{bib-name}-attachments/` next to the HTML file; appends `[PDF]` links.
`false`	No PDF copying; `[PDF]` links are omitted. `[online]` links are unaffected.

`full-citation-all`

Controls whether every [@key] in the document is expanded.

Value	Effect
`false` (default)	Only citations inside `.full-citation` divs are expanded.
`true`	Every `[@key]` in the document is expanded to a full inline citation (analogous to LaTeX’s `\fullcite`).

.full-citation divs and full-citation-all: true can be mixed freely; divs are processed first.

Citation syntax

`.full-citation` div

:::{.full-citation}
[@citekey]
:::

`ref=` attribute

Use ref= when you prefer not to place a cite key inside the div body. The key must still be known to citeproc — either via nocite in the front matter or by appearing elsewhere in the document as [@key].

:::{.full-citation ref="citekey"}
:::

`full-citation-all: true` mode

With this option set, every standard inline citation is automatically expanded:

The study by @author2023 shows …   ← renders as full inline citation

`[PDF]` and `[online]` links (HTML output)

Both links are appended inline at the end of each formatted citation.

Link	Condition
`[online]`	`url` field present in the bib entry
`[PDF]`	`file` field present and `full-citation-attachments: true`

Supported file field formats (JabRef / Zotero):

file = {:path/to/paper.pdf:PDF}
file = {Description:path/to/paper.pdf:application/pdf}
file = {/absolute/path/to/paper.pdf}

Paths can be absolute or relative to the .bib file.

Typical configurations

Annotated bibliography

Full citations with PDF links; no trailing reference list.

nocite: "@*"
full-citation-suppress-bibliography: true
full-citation-attachments: true
full-citation-all: false

Write prose annotations after each .full-citation div:

:::{.full-citation}
[@smith2023]
:::

Smith argues that …

Syllabus / reading list (all-in-one)

Every [@key] expands inline; no .full-citation divs required.

nocite: "@*"
full-citation-suppress-bibliography: true
full-citation-attachments: false
full-citation-all: true

Reading list with PDFs, keep reference list

nocite: "@*"
full-citation-suppress-bibliography: false
full-citation-attachments: true
full-citation-all: false

Rendering

quarto render example.qmd

Known limitations

Only the first citation key in a .full-citation div is used; one div per entry.
full-citation-all with grouped cites [@k1; @k2] expands only the first key.
PDF attachments work for HTML output only.
Windows absolute paths in bib file fields are not handled.