version: "1.0.0" name: citations description: Build and verify a clean, honest bibliography — resolve DOIs, fetch and normalize BibTeX, de-duplicate references, check that every cited work actually exists, and flag unverifiable or fabricated citations. Use when assembling a reference list, formatting citations (APA/IEEE/Nature/BibTeX), verifying a DOI or venue, cleaning a refs.bib, or checking a draft's citations are real. Trigger on "add references", "cite", "bibliography", "BibTeX", "DOI", "verify the citations", "reference list". Pairs with the librarian agent. Never fabricates a citation.

Citations — real references only

The single worst research-integrity failure for an AI is a confident, well-formatted citation that does not exist. This skill verifies before it cites and refuses to invent.

The non-negotiable rule

Never write a citation you have not verified exists. If you cannot resolve a DOI or find the work, say so and mark it Open / unverifiable — do not paper over it with a plausible-looking entry.

Resolve & verify

• Resolve DOIs via Crossref (https://api.crossref.org/works/{doi}) or https://doi.org/{doi}.
• For a title/author, search Crossref / OpenAlex / Semantic Scholar to get the canonical record.
• Confirm: authors, year, title, venue, and that the DOI actually points to the cited work.
• Use the WebSearch / WebFetch tools to confirm existence; record where you verified it.

Normalize BibTeX

@article{key2023,
  author  = {Last, First and Other, A.},
  title   = {Exact title as published},
  journal = {Venue},
  year    = {2023},
  volume  = {12}, number = {3}, pages = {45--67},
  doi     = {10.xxxx/xxxxx}
}

Keys: lastnameYEARword. One canonical entry per work.

De-duplicate & clean refs.bib

• Merge entries with the same DOI/title; keep the most complete one.
• Flag entries missing a DOI or with mismatched year/venue.
• Keep the bibliography sorted and consistent; no orphan keys (cited-but-absent or absent-but-cited).

Format on request

Map to the target style (APA 7, IEEE, Nature, Chicago, ACM). Keep the underlying BibTeX as the source of truth and render the style from it.

Audit a draft's citations

1. Extract every in-text citation key/marker.
2. Confirm each resolves to a real, correct record.
3. Report: verified ✓, needs-fix (wrong metadata), and unverifiable (cannot confirm — do not ship).
4. Tag the bibliography Code-verified (DOIs resolved) vs Asserted.

Guardrails

• No fabricated authors, titles, DOIs, or page numbers — ever.
• A citation you "remember" but cannot resolve is unverifiable; label it, don't assert it.
• Quotation + attribution must match the source; don't stretch a reference to support a claim it doesn't.