cite

Cite

Find relevant references to support a statement or claim, and insert a citation.

Input

• File path: the file being processed.
• Surrounding text: the paragraph or block where the <@cite: ...> tag appears.
• Prompt: where/how to find references. May include a source hint, an explicit reference, or a search instruction.

Workflow

1. Read the surrounding text to understand the claim or statement that needs a citation.
2. Determine the citation source from the prompt: user may specify a .bib or .md file, an arxiv search, a web search, or another file containing references.
3. Determine the output format: look at the existing citations and file format to determine the output, e.g., in LaTeX it should be \cite{key}, and in Markdown it should be [number] or [@key]. Check out the existing citation style in the document and follow it.

Context References

The prompt may contain context references wrapped in double backticks ( ``). These point to external resources.

• As source (most common): The reference points to a citation source — a .bib file, arxiv, a URL, or another file containing references. E.g., <@cite: ``refs.bib``> — search refs.bib for a matching entry.
• Resolve file references relative to the source file's directory unless an absolute path is given.
• Remove the delimiters from the output.

Rules

• Only insert citations — do not modify the surrounding text.
• The <@cite: ...> tag and all delimiters must be removed in the output.
• When searching online or on arXiv, prefer peer-reviewed or well-cited sources.
• If no credible source can be found, replace the tag with a placeholder comment (e.g., [citation needed]) and warn the user.
• In latex doc, when cite a new paper found online, add it to the main .bib file. When adding to a .bib file, do not duplicate existing entries.
• Match the citation style already used in the document.