Citation Fixer

Audit and fix provenance in knowledge base notes. Ensure every factual claim has an inline citation with date and source.

Provenance audit for knowledge base notes. Scans notes for citation compliance and fixes formatting, missing dates, missing sources, and broken reference links.

Contract

• Every note is scanned for citation compliance
• Missing citations flagged with specific location and suggested fix
• Malformed citations fixed to the standard format
• Results reported with counts (scanned, fixed, remaining gaps)
• Read-only by default: draft fix suggestions unless the user approves batch apply
• Never fabricate a citation for an uncited claim — flag it

Citation Standard

Every fact in the knowledge base should carry an inline [Source: ...] citation:

• User's own statements: [Source: user, {context}, YYYY-MM-DD]
• Web content: [Source: {publication}, {URL}, YYYY-MM-DD]
• Papers/articles: [Source: {authors}, "{title}", {year}]
• Conversations: [Source: chat with {name} re: {topic}, YYYY-MM-DD]
• Synthesis: [Source: compiled from {list of source slugs}]
• AI model output: [Source: {model name}, YYYY-MM-DD]

Phases

1. Scan. Walk through source notes, concept notes, and wiki pages. Check for inline [Source: ...] citations on factual claims.
2. Identify issues:
   • Facts without any citation
   • Citations missing date
   • Citations missing source type
   • Citations with wrong format
   • Reference links that 404 or point to wrong slugs
3. Draft fixes. For each issue, show the current text and the proposed fix. Group by note.
4. Report. Count: notes scanned, citations found, issues fixed, remaining gaps. Surface as a queue item for user review.

Output Format

text

Citation Audit — YYYY-MM-DD
────────────────────────────
Notes scanned:       X
Citations found:     X total (X valid, X issues)
Issues by type:
  Missing citation:     X
  Missing date:         X
  Missing source type:  X
  Malformed format:     X
  Broken reference:     X
────────────────────────────
Top notes to fix: [paths]

Anti-Patterns

• Fabricating a citation for an uncited claim — flag it as missing, don't invent
• Overwriting a claim citation without checking the source still exists
• Being too aggressive with ad-hoc conversational facts that don't need formal provenance (preference, opinion, speculation clearly marked as such)
• Running the full audit on the entire knowledge base without prioritizing — start with high-traffic pages
• Editing notes directly without the user's approval on the proposed changes