pi-paper-lab

A pi extension for scholarly and research writing: anti-AI rewrite, automatic citations, .docx output. Field-agnostic by default (papers, grants, reviews); domain profiles (YAML) add species/nomenclature/reporting rules when you work in a specific field.

v0.7.5 adds Word-native auto-renumbering (--live): the .docx gets live CITATION fields that renumber when you edit in Word (Ctrl+A, F9). The BIBLIOGRAPHY field populates from the source list.

v0.7.6: live is the default. Citations render as superscript [N] once the bundled IEEE2006SuperscriptOfficeOnline.xsl is installed (one-time, with consent: paper-lab-finalize --install-style file.md). The BIBLIOGRAPHY field also caches the rendered list, so non-Word apps still show a complete bibliography. Pass --no-live/--static for a plain <sup>[N]</sup> + text References section (no Word fields).

On auto-renumber: Word never renumbers citation fields automatically when you delete one — that requires a plugin (Zotero/Mendeley intercept edits). After deleting a [N] in the text, run Ctrl+A → F9 (or the ribbon Update Citations & Bibliography) to renumber. This is a Word engine limit, not fixable from a .docx.

Reads and writes .docx via the bun-docx CLI.

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.

Install

Requires pi ≥ 0.6.

macOS / Linux / WSL:

pi install github:Aspis0/pi-paper-lab

This clones the repo to ~/.pi/agent/extensions/pi-paper-lab/ and loads it on next pi start. The bun-docx CLI is a peer dependency:

npm install -g bun-docx

Windows (Git Bash):

Download docx.exe from the bun-docx releases and put it in ~/.local/bin/ so the extension can find it.

v0.7.8 adds keyless citation lookup: Exa's free tier works with no API key at all (~150 calls/day), and CrossRef always runs — so /paper-cite and the study phase find real sources out of the box. Serper/Exa keys are optional upgrades, not requirements.

Optional API keys (citations work without them):

• Exa key → higher rate limits than the free tier (REST instead of the rate-limited free MCP)
• Serper key → Google Scholar backend (2,500 free searches/month)
• Copyleaks key → external AI-detection backend (otherwise a local statistical detector is used)

Configure inside pi:

/paper-lab

Interactive menu for API keys, domain selection, citation backend.

Use

/paper-write "introduction section for a mouse immunology paper"
/paper-write "aims and hypotheses for a clinical trial protocol"
/paper-rewrite MyDraft.md "tighten the methods section"
/paper-cite MyDraft.docx "verify all citations"

/paper-write and /paper-rewrite start with a study phase: the LLM searches the literature and saves findings to study-notes.md next to the draft. The draft then cites the real papers it found.

/paper-cite skips the study phase. It finds citations for existing claims.

Word-native citations

By default, the .docx has Word-native citation fields (live mode, v0.7.6 default). This means:

• The Source Manager shows all your citations (References → Manage Sources)
• In-text numbers renumber automatically when you add/delete citations (Ctrl+A, F9)
• The bibliography regenerates from the source list
• The field also caches the rendered list, so LibreOffice / Google Docs / Pages still show a complete bibliography (they can't renumber, but they display it)

To force a fully static .docx (no Word fields — plain <sup>[N]</sup> + a manual ## References section), pass --no-live (alias --static):

/paper-write "topic" --static

The static output has <sup>[N]</sup> + a manual ## References section — no Word dependency.

Offline resolution

Once you run paper-lab-finalize, it writes a sidecar file (paper.citations.json) caching every resolved citation (DOI, title, formatted text). On subsequent runs, cached entries resolve instantly — no CrossRef roundtrip. Only new [N] markers or changed DOIs trigger fresh lookups.

Commands

Command	What it does
/paper-write <description> [--output path] [--no-live|--static]	Generate text from a description. Default is live (Word-native citations). Pass --no-live/--static for any-editor output
/paper-rewrite <file> [instructions] [--no-live|--static]	Rewrite anti-AI + add citations. Same live/--no-live flag
/paper-cite <file> [--strict] [instructions]	Add citations to existing draft. Pass --strict to forbid rewriting surrounding prose (citation-only mode)
/paper-lab	API keys + domain + citation backend + style

Domains

Domains are YAML files in data/domains/. The extension scans the folder at runtime. Adding a domain = creating one file, no code changes.

Built-in: drosophila-genetics, mouse-mammalian, cancer-biology, c-elegans, neuroscience, general-biology. For any other field — or for non-biology science — create a YAML profile (or just write without a domain; the default voice rules are field-neutral).

A YAML needs only name: to be valid. Example:

name: "Zebrafish"
detect_keywords: [zebrafish, "Danio rerio", ZFIN]
species:
  first_mention: "Danio rerio"

Citation styles (v0.7.5)

Three styles ship out of the box. Pass --style <id> to paper-lab-finalize or paper-lab-export:

Style	What it is	Numbered?	Example output
ieee (default)	IEEE 2006	Yes — [1], [2], ...	Y. Liu and P. Saavedra, "Cachexia in Drosophila", Disease Models & Mechanisms, vol. 15, no. 6, p. dmm049298, Jun 2022, doi: 10.1242/dmm.049298.
vancouver	ISO 690 - Numerical Reference	Yes — [1], [2], ...	Liu Y, Saavedra P. Cachexia in Drosophila. Disease Models & Mechanisms 2022;15:dmm049298. https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.049298.
apa	APA 7th edition (author-date)	No — (Liu & Saavedra, 2022)	Liu, Y., & Saavedra, P. (2022). Cachexia in Drosophila. Disease Models & Mechanisms, 15(6), dmm049298.

Set the default style in /paper-lab (or by editing ~/.pi/agent/.paper-lab-keys.json → citation_style). The Word bibliography field auto-populates with the chosen style on Ctrl+A, F9. Word's numbering ([1], [2], …) renumbers automatically when you add, remove, or reorder citations — the underlying b:Source list is positional; your in-text [N] markers are remapped to positional ids so the rendering stays correct.

The styles are powered by Citestyle (pre-compiled CSL XML bundled into JavaScript modules, ~9-13KB total per style). No runtime CSL parsing — the styles are compiled at Uniweb's build time.

Export bibliography to BibTeX / RIS / CSL-JSON (v0.7.5)

The paper-lab-export CLI dumps a paper's resolved bibliography in the format your reference manager expects:

paper-lab-export paper.md --format bibtex > refs.bib
paper-lab-export paper.md --format ris    > refs.ris
paper-lab-export paper.md --format csljson > refs.json
paper-lab-export paper.md --format all    > everything.txt

Uses Citation.js (@citation-js/core + @citation-js/plugin-bibtex + @citation-js/plugin-ris), lazy-loaded only when invoked. Hot path (paper-lab-finalize) stays Citation.js-free.

Local reference library (v0.7.5)

paper-lab-library manages a per-project, gitignored directory of CSL-JSON papers at <projectRoot>/paper-lab-library/. Use it for offline citation resolution and reuse.

paper-lab-library add 10.1038/nature12373          # Add by DOI
paper-lab-library add-from-search "cachexia Drosophila"  # Search OpenAlex
paper-lab-library import refs.bib                 # Import .bib / .ris / .csl.json
paper-lab-library list                            # List all entries
paper-lab-library search "cachexia IL6"           # BM25 search (offline)
paper-lab-library export --format bibtex          # Export to BibTeX
paper-lab-library sync                            # Rebuild SQLite cache
paper-lab-library stats

Auto-populating the library from /paper-cite is not yet implemented — entries are added manually via the CLI or via add-from-search. Automatic population is planned for a future release.

The library uses sql.js (pure WASM SQLite, no native binding, no node-gyp build) for the optional cache. Search uses pure-TypeScript BM25 (no ML model, no embeddings) — see src/library/bm25.ts.

Citation backends

/paper-lab → option 6 picks:

• auto (default): keyless Exa first (free MCP, or REST if you have a key), falls back to Serper if configured, CrossRef always
• crossref: CrossRef only (no Scholar/Exa calls — fully keyless)
• serper: Google Scholar via Serper.dev (needs key)
• exa: Exa.ai publications index, 350M+ papers (keyless via free MCP)
• both: parallel query, merge + dedupe

OpenAlex and Europe PMC also run as primary source-finders during the study phase (no key required, structured metadata + abstracts).

How it works

/paper-write "topic"
  → study_topic (search OpenAlex + Europe PMC + CrossRef, save study-notes.md)
  → write draft (grounded in study notes, anti-AI voice rules)
  → ai_detect_statistical (check for AI-tells, length-adaptive calibration)
  → find_citation per claim (batch, with disambiguation if unclear)
  → finalizeDoc [--live] → .docx with Word-native citations

The --live flag (default in v0.7.0) produces a .docx with:

• CustomXML source list (customXml/item1.xml) — Word's Source Manager sees all citations
• CITATION fields in the body — renumber on Ctrl+A, F9
• BIBLIOGRAPHY SDT at the end — regenerates from the source list

The --static flag produces <sup>[N]</sup> + manual ## References section — works in any editor.

After publish to npm (see PUBLISHING.md), anyone can install via pi install npm:pi-paper-lab.

Acknowledgements

• bun-docx. Markdown ↔ .docx conversion CLI used for file I/O.
• pi. The agent runtime this extends.
• Serper.dev. Google Scholar API.
• Exa. Neural academic search.
• CrossRef. DOI metadata for citation formatting.

Platform

• macOS: works
• Windows: works (Git Bash)
• Linux: should work

Security

npm audit reports 0 vulnerabilities as of v0.7.9 (@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent@0.84.1).

The previous HIGH findings are resolved:

• brace-expansion@≤5.0.7 (GHSA-mh99-v99m-4gvg) — fixed by upgrading to @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent@0.84.1, whose minimatch now resolves brace-expansion@5.0.9 (patched ≥5.0.8).
• undici@≤8.8.0 (5 advisories, e.g. GHSA-8xcm-r25x-g524) — fixed by the same upgrade (undici@8.9.0).

To audit locally: npm run audit (or npm audit --audit-level=high). Audit is a standalone script — it is not part of prepack, so a transient advisory never blocks publishing.

License

MIT