How to export with native Pandoc

Save the ZotLit integration pairCopy Anchor Link

Open Settings > ZotLit > Citations > Native Pandoc workflow. In that group, find Pandoc integration pair and select Save integration files.

Choose a user-owned workflow folder. ZotLit saves zotlit-cite.lua and zotlit.yaml there.

Keep both files together under these names. Save a fresh pair after every ZotLit update. Files saved from a version before ZotLit 2.2.0 do not work with 2.2.0 or later.

Create a bibliographyCopy Anchor Link

Better BibTeX is recommended for citation key management and automatic bibliography updates.

In Zotero, right-click the library, group library, or collection that contains your cited items. Select Export and choose Better CSL JSON. Enable Keep updated, then save references.json.

The export updates after its source library or collection changes. See the Better BibTeX automatic export guide for its update controls.

Without Better BibTeX, right-click the library or collection, select Export, choose CSL JSON, and save references.json. Export it again after the cited Zotero data changes.

BibLaTeX and BibTeX are also supported. The command below uses CSL JSON.

Prepare a Literature Note citationCopy Anchor Link

Confirm that the cited Zotero item has a citation key and a ZotLit Literature Note. In your input note, add an unaliased link to that Literature Note with a Citation Fragment:

This result follows the earlier analysis [[Doe 2020#cite:locator=33]].

Replace Doe 2020 with the exact link target of your Literature Note. The locator fragment becomes a page locator in the Pandoc citation.

Set the document style and languageCopy Anchor Link

Without a style property, the note cites with the style ZotLit selects for it in Obsidian. For an Imported Note, that is its profile's style. For every other note, it is your Citation and references style. Set a style here only when this note needs a different one.

Open the input note and run:

Select a CSL style installed in Zotero, or select Vault style (…). Enter the complete document's language, then select Save.

When you select a named style, the note frontmatter contains its Zotero style ID and a Pandoc language tag:

---
zotlit-csl: http://www.zotero.org/styles/nature
lang: en-US
---

The note must not also contain csl or citation-style for this path. Vault style (…) removes zotlit-csl, and the note returns to the vault or profile style.

Run Pandoc with absolute pathsCopy Anchor Link

Keep Obsidian open with the input vault and ZotLit loaded. Run the canonical command with absolute paths:

pandoc "/absolute/path/to/input.md" --defaults "/absolute/path/to/workflow/zotlit.yaml" --bibliography "/absolute/path/to/references.json" --fail-if-warnings --output "/absolute/path/to/output.docx"

Replace each example path. Keep --fail-if-warnings so a warning stops the run instead of producing an unchecked document.

Verify the resultCopy Anchor Link

Confirm that the output .docx exists and opens.

Pandoc prints one ZotLit line in the terminal that names the style and where it comes from:

ZotLit: citations use APA Style 7th edition (from your vault settings).

Check that the line names the style you expect. The source reads from this note, from the Research profile, from your vault settings, or from the csl field or the --csl option. When your vault selection is Default, the line names the Pandoc default style, Chicago author-date. This line is not a warning, so --fail-if-warnings does not stop the run.

Check that [[Doe 2020#cite:locator=33]] became a formatted citation with locator 33. Confirm that the document contains the corresponding formatted bibliography entry.