quarto preview command ignores updates of dependent files (in this case bibliography .bib file)

I have:

• searched the issue tracker for similar issues
• installed the latest version of Quarto CLI
• formatted my issue following the Bug Reports guide

Bug description

---
title: "Quarto preview ignores changes in dependencies"
author: "Waldemar la Tendresse"
lang: en
date: today
format:
  pdf:
    bibliography: references.bib

    colorlinks: true
    documentclass: article
    geometry: [top=25mm, bottom=20mm, left=25mm, right=20mm, heightrounded]
    papersize: a4

    footnotes-placement: section
---

# **Quarto is a great idea with far too many basic issues because it ignores basic TDD principles**

After you have understood the basics @quarto_basics you will start to create more complex document structures and will run into issues with bibliographies @quarto_biblio.

## **Steps to reproduce:**

[document.pdf](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/26961695/document.pdf)

## What's wrong?

**Expected behaviour:**
Quarto triggers rendering of the preview after a bibliography file update.

**What actually happens:**
Nothing.

```{python}
from datetime import datetime
print(f"The document was rendered on {datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')}")
```

Hack on

W. la Tendresse

\pagebreak

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a document that uses a .bib file. Alternatively save the attached .qmd and create a .bib file with both references used in the main document (unfortunately .bib bib files can not be attached here!) into any empty "project directory".
2. Execute "quarto preview <your_document>".
3. Change the contents of the referenced bibliography file (for example to correct typos).

If quarto worked correctly in for this simple example, the second bibliography reference (@quarto_biblio) should be rendered correctly after the bibliography file has been re-saved.

This issue might be a duplicate of https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/2795 but that is not clear without code review.

---

Following are the contents of the .bib file, that can not be attached:

@online{quarto_basics,
author = {{quarto.org}},
title = {Quarto markdown basics},
year = {2025},
url = {https://quarto.org/docs/authoring/markdown-basics.html},
urldate = {2025-01-21}
}

%@online{quarto_biblio,
% author = {{quarto.org}},
% title = {Quarto bibliography},
% year = {2025},
% url = {https://quarto.org/docs/output-formats/typst.html#bibliography},
% urldate = {2025-01-21}
%}

Actual behavior

quarto preview does not trigger a re-render when references .bib files are being updated.

Expected behavior

THe previewed document needs to be re-rendered upon change of dependent files (possibly with some configurable optional timeout value in case some other software that generates documents for quarto is misbehaving).

Your environment

• Any text editor
• OS: Linux Mint 22.3 - Cinnamon 64-bit

Quarto check output

Quarto 1.9.29
[✓] Checking environment information...
Quarto cache location: /home/mint/.cache/quarto
[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
Pandoc version 3.8.3: OK
Dart Sass version 1.87.0: OK
Deno version 2.4.5: OK
Typst version 0.14.2: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
Version: 1.9.29
Path: /opt/quarto/bin

[✓] Checking tools....................OK
TinyTeX: v2026.04
Chromium: (not installed)
Chrome Headless Shell: (not installed)
VeraPDF: (not installed)

[✓] Checking LaTeX....................OK
Using: TinyTex
Path: /home/mint/.TinyTeX/bin/x86_64-linux
Version: 2026

[✓] Checking Chrome Headless....................OK
Chrome: (not detected)

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking R installation...........(None)

  Unable to locate an installed version of R.
  Install R from https://cloud.r-project.org/

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
Version: 3.12.3
Path: /usr/bin/python3
Jupyter: 5.3.2
Kernels: python3

[✓] Checking Jupyter engine render....OK

[✓] Checking Julia installation...

Start by reproducing the issue with quarto preview <your_document> on a QMD document referencing references.bib, then inspect the preview command's dependency-watching entry point. Confirm that saving the .bib file triggers a re-render and that the updated bibliography appears in the preview.