On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 08:19:03 +0100
Antoine Cailliau <antoinecailliau@gmail.com> wrote:

> How can I adjust the publication list to display [Kup03a] instead of
> [2] ? The numbering option does not offer "key" apparently.

Using the mkiv publications mechanism, you can get short \cite keys
by default using

\setupbtx[alternative=short]

Individually, you can use \cite[short][yourkey]


Then you will also have to modify the bibliography list rendering to
display the short key. This is slightly more complicated, as presently
only the APA and APS styles have been predefined, the first being an
"authoryear" scheme and the second being a "num" scheme.

Starting with the APS style:

\usebtxdefinitions[aps]

\definebtxrendering
  [mystyle]
  [aps] % inherits from "aps"
  [sorttype=short,
   numbering=short]


\cite[...]

...

\placelistofpublications[mystyle]


However, you really want to define a complete style for your rendering.

Alan