The RefDB command-line clients are no fat applications, but rather a collection of small, portable tools implemented in ANSI C to perform all necessary client-side tasks on any platform with a decent C compiler.

The RefDB command-line clients can be run in an interactive mode or in a batch mode. The latter is useful for scripting purpose or for use as backends of graphical user interfaces.

A PHP interface allows to perform most RefDB operations through a web interface.

RefDB also provides clients which allow to access RefDB databases through a SRU (Search and Retrieve via URL) interface. A simple standalone client for personal use and a CGI program for shared use through a web server are available.

Separately available packages integrate RefDB functionality into Emacs and vim, turning these editors into integrated authoring environments for DocBook and TEI documents with easy access to your reference data.

The adepts of the Perl programming language might be delighted to know that the RefDBClient module allows Perl programs to directly communicate with a refdbd server without using the C clients. This allows the rapid development of custom programs that access RefDB databases.