check-refs

check-refs — Citation Reference Check

Verify all references in a LaTeX paper against academic databases.

When to Use

• "check my references", "verify citations", "check refs"
• Called by the presubmit-checks skill as one of its checks
• Before submitting a paper draft

Workflow

1. Find the paper files

Look for .tex and .bib files. Common project structures:

• paper/current/main.tex + paper/current/main.bib (standard project template)
• paper/current/main.tex + paper/current/references.bib
• paper/main.tex + paper/main.bib (flat layout)
• main.tex + references.bib (root-level)

Search order:

1. If user provides a path, use it
2. Look for paper/current/main.tex
3. Look for paper/main.tex
4. Look for main.tex in current directory
5. Glob for **/*.tex and pick the main file (the one with \begin{document})

For .bib: look for main.bib or references.bib next to the .tex file, or let bibsleuth auto-detect from \bibliography{}.

2. Run existence check (fast, no API key needed)

Run in the background with a 10-minute timeout — bibsleuth queries multiple academic APIs and can take several minutes for large bibliographies. Bibsleuth writes bibsleuth-report.json and bibsleuth-report.md next to the input file by default.

# Use Bash tool with run_in_background: true, timeout: 600000
uvx bibsleuth check <TEX_FILE> --bib <BIB_FILE> --no-llm

Tell the user the check is running in the background and continue with other work. You will be notified when it completes.

3. Present results

Once notified that the command finished, read the bibsleuth-report.md file (in the same directory as the input file) and summarize:

• The report is grouped by verdict (verified, likely, unverified, error) and entry category (academic papers, books, software/data)
• Focus on unverified entries — these need attention
• List suggested patches (missing DOIs, URLs) from the patches section
• Tell the user where the full report file is

4. Offer next steps

• Apply patches: offer to add suggested DOIs/URLs to the .bib file (ask before editing)
• Full LLM analysis: if user wants mis-citation detection and missing citation suggestions, run without --no-llm (requires ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY). Also run in background with 10-minute timeout:

  uvx bibsleuth check <TEX_FILE> --bib <BIB_FILE>
  

• Save to library: uvx bibsleuth library add <BIB_FILE>

5. LLM analysis results (if run)

Summarize additional findings:

• Mis-citations: cited paper may not support the claim made in the text
• Suggested papers: candidates for claims that could use stronger citations
• Contradictions: well-cited papers that argue against claims in the paper

Rules

• Always run --no-llm first — it's fast and free
• Don't automatically edit the .bib — ask before applying patches
• If bibsleuth is not installed, run uv tool install bibsleuth first