Open-source reference manager·macOS / Windows / Linux
A reference library
you can talk to.
LumenCite is an open-source reference manager for researchers. It parses PDFs down to theorems, equations, and figures, and lets you chat with an AI across your entire library. Automatic BibTeX sync connects it straight to your LaTeX writing.
Free · MIT License · Universal Binary (Apple Silicon / Intel) · Windows / Linux builds on Releases
LCIR — PAPER STRUCTURE
Papers, parsed into machine-readable structure.
LumenCite parses PDFs and arXiv TeX sources into a tree of sections, paragraphs, theorems, proofs, equations, figures, and tables (LCIR), each node carrying page coordinates. Papers are analyzed automatically the moment you add them. The full-text index and figure extraction are built from this structure, and the AI chat reads in-text references like “Theorem 2.3” as the actual nodes.
This structure underpins the full-text index, figure extraction, and chat citations
AGENTIC CHAT
Talk to your entire library.
The AI iterates over full-text search and LCIR read tools to build answers across multiple papers. Responses distinguish the paper's own words from LumenCite's inference, and clicking a citation jumps to that exact spot in the PDF. Scope a chat to your whole library, or just the papers you pick.
Kempe's review is the most organized introduction. The definition is given on the Hilbert space H = HC ⊗ HP and is consistent with Ambainis's later formulation.Kempe 2003 · §2.1 · p.4This part is the paper's own wording.
Clicking a citation highlights the corresponding passage in the PDF
BIBTEX WORKFLOW
Flows straight into LaTeX writing.
Edits to your library sync automatically to a .bib file at a path you choose, designed with VSCode LaTeX Workshop in mind. Citation keys can be pinned, and duplicates are resolved automatically. Use the built-in CLI lumencite bib from the terminal, or drive the library from Claude Code and Claude Desktop via the built-in MCP server.
Everything a research tool needs.
Automatic metadata
Just paste a DOI / arXiv ID / ISBN — fetched via CrossRef, arXiv, and Open Library
PDF viewer
3-color highlights and notes. Attach multiple PDFs per entry — the paper plus supplements
Full-text search & filters
FTS5 full-text search over PDFs. Stack type, year, star, and tag filters with AND / OR
Vision OCR
Transcribes scanned PDFs with no text layer via LLM vision, making them searchable
MCP · CLI · Web Clipper
Read and write your library from Claude Code and more. One-click capture via the Chrome extension
KaTeX math
Renders math in abstracts and notes as you wrote it. Notes are Markdown
⌘K command palette
Search across entries and trigger global actions from anywhere
Automatic backups
Database and attachments bundled into one zip. 14 generations kept, validated restore
Also: LLM summaries (OpenAI / Anthropic, API keys in the OS keychain) · Japanese / English UI · light / dark / auto themes · 4 accent colors · signed auto-updates (macOS)
Start talking to your library today.
The macOS build is signed and notarized, with in-app auto-updates. Windows (.msi / .exe) and Linux (.AppImage / .deb / .rpm) builds are on GitHub Releases.
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