JabRef Browser Extension

Firefox - Chrome - Edge - Vivaldi - Safari (build from source)

Browser extension for users of the bibliographic reference manager JabRef. It automatically identifies and extracts bibliographic information on websites and sends them to JabRef with one click.

When you find an interesting article through Google Scholar, the arXiv or journal websites, this browser extension allows you to add those references to JabRef. Even links to accompanying PDFs are sent to JabRef, where those documents can easily be downloaded, renamed and placed in the correct folder. A wide range of publisher sites, library catalogs and databases are supported.

Please post any issues or suggestions here on GitHub.

Installation and Configuration

Normally, you simply install the extension from the browser store and are ready to go.

Firefox - Chrome - Edge - Vivaldi - Safari (build from source)

Sometimes, a manual installation is necessary (e.g. if you use the portable version of JabRef). In this case, please follow the steps described in the user manual.

Troubleshooting native messaging on macOS Chrome

If Chrome reports Specified native messaging host not found., its registered JabRef host manifest may refer to an old location for jabrefHost.py. Reinstall the manifest bundled with the currently installed JabRef application:

sudo cp "/Applications/JabRef.app/Contents/Resources/native-messaging-host/chromium/org.jabref.jabref.json" \
  "/Library/Google/Chrome/NativeMessagingHosts/org.jabref.jabref.json"

Quit Chrome completely and reopen it afterwards. This assumes JabRef is installed in /Applications; adjust the first path if it is installed elsewhere.

Safari builds are available for local development via WXT:

• pnpm dev:safari builds the Safari development target
• pnpm safari:xcode builds the Safari target and generates the Xcode project in dist/safari/ through wxt-module-safari-xcode

For the Apple packaging step:

• pnpm safari:build-app builds the Safari target, generates the Xcode project, and produces dist/safari/JabRef Browser Extension.app
• pnpm sign:safari-local IDENTITY="Developer ID Application: Your Name (TEAMID)" signs the generated app
• pnpm notarize:safari-local PROFILE="profile-name" notarizes and zips the signed app

WXT builds the extension bundle, and wxt-module-safari-xcode converts that bundle into the Xcode project and macOS app structure Apple expects.

To test the Safari build locally:

1. Run pnpm safari:build-app
2. Open dist/safari/JabRef Browser Extension.xcodeproj
3. Run the JabRef Browser Extension scheme in Xcode
4. Enable the extension in Safari Settings

The generated macOS app bundle is placed at dist/safari/JabRef Browser Extension.app.

Safari CI is split into two parts:

1. Tests workflow:
   • safari-build runs on macos-latest
   • it executes pnpm safari:build-app
   • this validates the WXT build, Xcode packaging, and Safari app bundle path on pull requests and on main
2. release workflow:
   • package builds Safari, uploads the unsigned Safari app artifact, and on release pushes also signs and notarizes a direct-distribution zip
   • publish (safari) rebuilds the Xcode project on macos-26 and publishes it to App Store Connect with rxliuli/safari-webext-publish-action
3. Safari Signing Test workflow:
   • manual workflow_dispatch workflow with a run_safari_signing_test checkbox
   • it builds the Safari project and runs the App Store signing/publish step without touching the release workflow

The Safari publish job expects these GitHub Actions secrets:

• APPLE_TEAM_ID: Apple Developer team ID
• APPLE_CERTIFICATE_BASE64: base64-encoded .p12 certificate containing the App Store signing identities
• APPLE_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD: password for that .p12
• SAFARI_APP_SIGNING_IDENTITY: full app signing identity exactly as shown by security find-identity -v -p basic, for example 3rd Party Mac Developer Application: JabRef e.V. (TEAMID)
• SAFARI_INSTALLER_SIGNING_IDENTITY: full installer signing identity exactly as shown by security find-identity -v -p basic, for example 3rd Party Mac Developer Installer: JabRef e.V. (TEAMID)
• APPLE_MACOS_PROVISIONING_PROFILE_BASE64: base64-encoded macOS App Store provisioning profile for the app bundle ID
• APPLE_MACOS_EXTENSION_PROVISIONING_PROFILE_BASE64: base64-encoded macOS App Store provisioning profile for the extension bundle ID
• APPLE_API_KEY: base64-encoded App Store Connect API key (.p8)
• APPLE_API_KEY_ID: App Store Connect API key ID
• APPLE_API_ISSUER: App Store Connect API issuer ID

The direct-distribution Safari artifact additionally expects:

• APPLE_DEVELOPER_ID_CERTIFICATE_BASE64: base64-encoded .p12 certificate containing the Developer ID Application identity
• APPLE_DEVELOPER_ID_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD: password for that .p12
• SAFARI_DEVELOPER_ID_SIGNING_IDENTITY: full Developer ID signing identity exactly as shown by security find-identity -v -p basic, for example Developer ID Application: JabRef e.V. (TEAMID)

The newer Apple Developer portal may label these certificates as Apple Distribution, Mac App Distribution, or Mac Installer Distribution, but the secret values used by codesign and productbuild must match the installed Keychain identity strings exactly.

The local pnpm sign:safari-local and pnpm notarize:safari-local commands still exist for manual Developer ID packaging outside the App Store flow.

Usage

After the installation, you should be able to import bibliographic references into JabRef directly from your browser. Just visit a publisher site or some other website containing bibliographic information (for example, the arXiv) and click the JabRef symbol in the Firefox search bar (or press Alt+Shift+J). Once the JabRef browser extension has extracted the references and downloaded the associated PDF's, the import window of JabRef opens.

You might want to configure JabRef so that new entries are always imported in an already opened instance of JabRef. For this, activate "Remote operation" under the Network tab in the JabRef Preferences.

Architecture

How JabRef and this extension interact is specified in JabRef's requirements docs:

• Browser-Extension Fulltext Protocol (req~bxf.*) — JabRef fetches full-text PDFs through the browser. The provider half lives in bridge/, a small native-messaging companion process.
• MathSciNet sync (req~mathscinet.sync.*) — JabRef opens or focuses a MathSciNet browser tab for the current entry, via the same bridge.

About this Add-On

Internally, this browser extension uses the magic of Zotero's site translators. Thus most of the credit has to go to the Zotero development team and to the many authors of the site translators collection. Note that this browser extension does not make any changes to the Zotero database and thus both plug-ins coexist happily with each other.