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citracer traces keyword citations through papers
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REDDIT · REDDIT// 3d agoOPENSOURCE RELEASE

citracer traces keyword citations through papers

citracer is a small CLI for tracing where a keyword-linked concept shows up in a paper's citation graph. It parses PDFs with GROBID, pulls linked papers from arXiv and OpenReview, and renders the result as an interactive HTML graph, with a reverse mode powered by Semantic Scholar citation contexts.

// ANALYSIS

This is a genuinely useful niche tool for literature review archaeology, especially when you remember a concept but not its origin. The tradeoff is that its quality will live or die on parser accuracy and citation coverage, so it will shine on ML/CS papers and get shakier elsewhere.

  • The forward mode is the interesting part, because it ties keyword occurrences to nearby references instead of just building a generic bibliography network
  • The reverse mode is pragmatic, not magical, since it skips PDF downloads and leans on Semantic Scholar's citation-context metadata
  • GROBID dependence is a real constraint, but also the right one for this problem if the target domain is paper-heavy and citation-rich
  • The project fits the "research workflow infrastructure" lane more than a flashy end-user app, which makes it appealing to power users and contributors
  • The rough edges the author calls out are believable, but the scope is narrow enough that a focused community could improve it quickly
// TAGS
citracercliopen-sourcesearchdata-tools

DISCOVERED

3d ago

2026-04-08

PUBLISHED

3d ago

2026-04-08

RELEVANCE

7/ 10

AUTHOR

Roux55