A citation is a place you can open

A citation is a place you can open. If the heading is fake, the answer is a guess wearing a footnote.

This post is how to ask for a cite, how to click it, and what to do when it is wrong.

What counts

A good cite has:

• the chunk title, or the page, or both
• a short quote or a line number you can find
• a path back to the file you used

A number in brackets with no heading does not count. A “according to the notes” does not count.

If you cannot open it, you do not have a citation. You have decoration.

Ask for the place, then open it

Tell the model: name the heading. Repeat one short clause from that heading’s chunk.

Then you open that chunk. If the clause is not there, the cite failed.

Do this in your code when you can. A person should not be the only checker, but a person should still spot-check.

For a notes helper, the screen can show the answer and the title as a link. The link opens the chunk. If the link is dead, hide the answer.

Three cases

The swapped case is the one people skip. Plant it: take a right answer and attach a wrong title. Your checker must fail.

Walk through once

File: attendance note. Headings: Rule, Safe example, Unsafe example, Canteen.

Question: “What is the 75% rule?”

A good reply names Rule and repeats “75% of classes.” You open Rule. The clause is there.

A bad reply names Canteen and still says 75%. You open Canteen. The clause is not there. You drop the answer.

A worse reply names “Chapter 7 — Attendance Policy” and that heading does not exist in your file. Invented title. Drop it.

Keep these three replies as fixtures. Run them through your checker without the model. Then run the model and see which fixture it looks like.

What good looks like

A good cite is dull.

The screen shows three bullets and one link: Rule. You click. You see “75% of classes.” You do not need faith.

A bad day is also dull: the question has no home, the screen says it does not know, and there is no link. That is a pass.

A pretty day is the trap: four footnotes, a Latin-looking id, and a closed file. If you did not click, you published a costume.

Write one sentence you will not break: the user can open the place, or they do not see the claim.

How the checker fails on purpose

Build the checker as a function that does not call the model.

Inputs: answer text, claimed title, the list of real chunks.

Pass: title is in the list, and a short clause from the answer sits in that chunk’s text.

Fail: title missing, title not in the list, or clause not in that chunk.

Hand it the three fixtures. Do not look at a live model until those three behave.

If you start with the live model, you will tweak the prompt when the checker is the thing that is wrong — or missing.

When the live model later invents “Chapter 7,” you already know the row. You do not have a debate. You have a fail.

Keep a fourth fixture: a right title and a clause from a different chunk. That is a swapped quote. It should fail too. Title-only checks are how a canteen line rides on a Rule heading.

The open chunk is the test. The footnote mark is not.

What to store

When you retrieve, keep title, text, and source path on each chunk. The model may only pick from that list.

If it names a title outside the list, fail. Do not ask it to try a nicer title. The list is the world.

If two chunks share a title, make the titles unique. “Notes” and “Notes” is how you lose the click.

Common mistakes

Pretty quotes, closed file. You never clicked.

Allowing any title. The model will invent a professional one.

Citing the whole PDF. That is a shrug.

Showing three cites and opening none. One opened cite beats three badges.

Using a web search cite you did not fetch. If you did not retrieve it, you cannot open it.

Practise

1. Write a checker that takes answer + title + chunk list.
2. Feed it a known-good triple. It passes.
3. Feed it a swapped title. It fails.
4. Feed it an invented title. It fails.
5. Then connect the model. Keep the checker.

The second row is the product. A board of only good cites is a demo.

Checklist

• A cite has a title you can open.
• The quoted clause sits in that chunk.
• Invented titles fail in code.
• Unknown questions do not get a fake heading.
• You clicked at least one cite today.

The next step is a link that opens, not a nicer footnote style.