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citation-guard

Research
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Verify citations against the research corpus to prevent hallucinated references and enforce GRADE compliance

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/jmagly/aiwg/blob/HEAD/agentic/code/frameworks/sdlc-complete/skills/citation-guard/SKILL.md

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citation-guard

Automatically verify citations when agents generate content that makes factual claims or references research.

Triggers

Alternate expressions and non-obvious activations (primary phrases are matched automatically from the skill description):

  • "fabricated citations" / "hallucinated references" → citation authenticity check
  • "DOI check" → citation DOI validation
  • "verify sources" in research context → citation verification
  • "timestamp citation" / "transcript quote" → media timestamp citation check

Purpose

This skill acts as a passive citation guard, activating whenever agents generate content that includes citations or factual claims requiring evidence. It prevents citation hallucination by verifying references exist before they are written.

Behavior

When triggered, this skill:

  1. Intercept citation generation:

    • Detect when an agent is about to write content with citations
    • Extract all REF-XXX, DOI, and @-mention references

  2. Verify against corpus:

    • Check each reference exists in .aiwg/research/sources/ or .aiwg/research/findings/
    • Validate REF-XXX identifiers match frontmatter
    • For media timestamp citations, verify the REF records a transcript sidecar, the timestamp exists in segments[], and the quoted words match the transcript text exactly
    • Flag any references not in corpus

  3. Check GRADE compliance:

    • Load quality assessment for cited sources
    • Verify hedging language matches evidence quality level
    • Suggest language corrections if overclaiming detected

  4. Allow or warn:

    • All citations valid: Proceed silently
    • GRADE violation: WARN with suggested language fix
    • Hallucinated citation: BLOCK with specific error

  5. Track gaps:

    • Log uncitable claims to .aiwg/research/TODO.md
    • Track frequently needed but missing sources

Activation Conditions

activation:
  always_active_for:
    - technical-writer
    - documentation-synthesizer
    - requirements-analyst
    - architecture-designer
    - domain-expert
    - technical-researcher

  triggers_on_content:
    - pattern: "REF-\\d{3}"
    - pattern: "@\\.aiwg/research/"
    - pattern: "@\\.aiwg/research/.*@\\s*\\d{1,2}:\\d{2}(?::\\d{2})?"
    - pattern: "according to"
    - pattern: "research (shows|demonstrates|suggests|indicates)"
    - pattern: "\\(\\w+ et al\\., \\d{4}\\)"

Integration

This skill uses:

  • project-awareness: Load project's research corpus path
  • Citation Verifier agent for deep verification when needed

References

  • @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/frameworks/sdlc-complete/rules/citation-policy.md - Citation policy rules
  • @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/frameworks/sdlc-complete/agents/citation-verifier.md - Citation Verifier agent
  • @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/frameworks/sdlc-complete/schemas/research/hallucination-detection.yaml - Detection patterns
  • @.aiwg/research/docs/grade-assessment-guide.md - GRADE methodology