How to use custom csl for software biblatex entry?

Yannick_Lapointe · October 1, 2025, 5:54pm

I am trying to use a custom csl file to display the reference to a software in a specific way so I have added a section in the csl layout section for if the entry type is software. The problem I have is the type software doesn’t seem to be recognized by Typst because the format I get in the document matches not the section I added but the “else” format. When I generate the bibliography with pandoc for example I get the correct entry format for the software.

Is it possible that the software type is converted to some other csl style by Typst and if so, what is it?

PgBiel · October 2, 2025, 11:09pm

Yes, it is converted to @misc, likely due to the following line in the BibLaTeX manual (https://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/biblatex/doc/biblatex.pdf, under “Database Guide” > “Entry Types” > “Regular Types”):

software Computer software. The standard styles will treat this entry type as an alias for @misc.

The relevant implementation in hayagriva (the library used by Typst to render citations and bibliography from CSL styles) can be found below, when converting from BibLaTeX to hayagriva’s format.

github.com/typst/hayagriva

src/interop.rs

799cfdcc5


      
              { tex::EntryType::SuppPeriodical, EntryType::Misc, Some(EntryType::Periodical), true },
              { tex::EntryType::Collection, EntryType::Anthology, None, true },
              { tex::EntryType::SuppCollection, EntryType::Misc, Some(EntryType::Anthology), true },
              { tex::EntryType::Reference, EntryType::Reference, None, true },
              { tex::EntryType::MvReference, EntryType::Reference, None, false },
              { tex::EntryType::InReference, EntryType::Entry, Some(EntryType::Reference), true },
              { tex::EntryType::MvProceedings, EntryType::Proceedings, None, false },
              { tex::EntryType::MvCollection, EntryType::Anthology, None, false },
              { tex::EntryType::Patent, EntryType::Patent, None, false },
              { tex::EntryType::Online, EntryType::Web, None, false },
              { tex::EntryType::Software, EntryType::Misc, None, false },
              { tex::EntryType::Dataset, EntryType::Repository, None, false },
              { tex::EntryType::Set, EntryType::Misc, None, false },
              { tex::EntryType::XData, EntryType::Misc, None, false },
              { tex::EntryType::Unknown(_), EntryType::Misc, None, false },
          ]);
          
          if let Ok(a) = entry.author().map(|a| a.iter().map(Into::into).collect()) {
              item.set_authors(a);
          }

Indeed, it would appear that software is also not a valid hayagriva entry type in general.

Maybe the entry type repository is more appropriate in your case? Though you’d need to use hayagriva yaml to specify it (I think @dataset from biblatex also happens to be converted to repository).