Skip to content

Bibliography or style not found

Citations take a bibliography and a citation style, both named in pandoc.yaml. A name that resolves to no file stops the build; a style with no bibliography to format is ignored.

What it looks like

ERROR: bibliography file not found: sources.bib
  Place it in the manuscript/ directory and reference it by name in pandoc.yaml.
  See https://keystone.knight-owl.dev/errors/bibliography-not-found/#the-bibliography-file-isnt-there

ERROR: CSL style not found: apa
  Valid: chicago-author-date, chicago-notes-bibliography
  See https://keystone.knight-owl.dev/errors/bibliography-not-found/#the-citation-style-isnt-there

WARN: 'csl' is set but 'bibliography' is not
  csl is ignored.
  See https://keystone.knight-owl.dev/errors/bibliography-not-found/#a-style-with-no-bibliography

What it means

The bibliography file isn't there

Each bibliography entry is a bare file name, looked up in manuscript/.

Put the file in manuscript/ under the name pandoc.yaml gives it

The name is the file's, extension included. See The bibliography file.

The citation style isn't there

A csl ending in .csl names your own file in manuscript/; any other name is a style the image ships, and the message lists those.

Name a shipped style, or add .csl to your own

For a style that doesn't ship, put its .csl file in manuscript/ and name it with the extension, csl: apa.csl. See Citation style.

A style with no bibliography

A style formats citations drawn from a bibliography; with none, it has nothing to format.

Add a bibliography, or remove csl

See The bibliography file.