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A bit like this:

- Convert the whole bibliography database to html using pandoc in the preferred cs rendering. That should be fast.

- Use the normal context commands for referencing a citation (the cite part is normally easy as there is not much variation in that; if needed one can cheat and also pregenerate that). That's then just some relatively small plugin mode.

- When placing the bibliography, filter the right entries from that html file (easy) using info that got stored in the tuc.

It is also fast. The only depdency then is pandoc but that is widely available (irr). But I would need to see an example of that kind of out first. We basically treat the (formatted) bibliography as an external resource but in some format that we can easily parse (and if needed tweak).

Hans

This is similar to my strategy today. I create a pandoc markdown file from my ConTeXt source using a simple script and generate ConTeXt output containing just the bibliography using pandoc. This output needs some minor tweaks, again scripted, to do things like replace the space in Vol. 999 with a non-breaking space to keep the following number on the same line and to convert \em and such to taggable macros that I define in my environment. The result is ConText source that can be further edited (if necessary) and inserted where needed. I have not extended it to multiple bibliographies in  a single document, although that should not be difficult.

Another possibility would be for ConTeXt, under control of a flag or setting, to generate an editable bibliography file that could be included under control of a second flag or setting.

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Rik