Citations & Source Verification

Crow generates properly formatted citations automatically and tracks how every source was found — so your research is always verifiable.

Multi-Format Citations

When you add a source, Crow generates citations in four formats from the metadata you provide:

Format	Style	Best for
APA	Author (Year). Title. Publisher. URL	Academic papers, psychology, social sciences
MLA	Author. "Title." Publisher, Date. URL.	Humanities, literature, arts
Chicago	Author. "Title." Publisher. Date. URL.	History, publishing, many academic fields
Web	Title. URL. Accessed DATE. [Found via METHOD]	Blog posts, quick references, AI-assisted research

How it works

All four formats are generated at query time from stored source fields (authors, title, date, URL, etc.) — no extra data entry needed.

• Adding a source: By default, the APA format is stored as the primary citation. Use the citation_format parameter to change this.
• Viewing a source: crow_get_source shows all four citation formats.
• Generating a bibliography: crow_generate_bibliography accepts a format parameter: apa, mla, chicago, web, or all.

Example

"Crow, generate a Chicago-style bibliography for my Civil War research project"

Crow fetches all sources in the project and generates Chicago-format citations, sorted alphabetically.

"Crow, show me source #42 with all citation formats"

Crow displays the full source details including APA, MLA, Chicago, and web citations.

Source Verification

Crow tracks how each source was found, so you can distinguish between sources you found yourself and sources discovered by AI search.

Retrieval methods

When adding a source, the retrieval_method field records how it was obtained:

• "direct URL" — user provided the link
• "AI search via Claude" — found during an AI-assisted search
• "library database" — found via academic database
• "user-provided" — user supplied the source directly

Verification workflow

1. Add the source with accurate metadata and retrieval method
2. Verify the URL is real and accessible (especially for AI-discovered sources)
3. Cross-reference claims with other sources
4. Mark as verified using crow_verify_source with notes about what was checked

The "no unverified claims" principle

When conducting research through Crow, every factual claim should link to a stored, cited source. This means:

• AI summaries are not sources — trace back to the original
• If a URL can't be verified, note that in the verification status
• Primary sources are preferred over secondary summaries

Customization

You can set a default citation format in your crow.md:

"Crow, always use MLA format for my citations"

This updates your research protocol to generate MLA as the primary format when adding sources.