Live-run findings from a real fact-checking task (ankylosing spondylitis
genetics, 7 authoritative sources) against the new mode:
- Verbatim check rejected a legitimate quote because web_extract returns
markdown: the MedlinePlus sentence is "including _[ERAP1](https://...)_,
_[IL1A](...)_" on the wire but plain prose to a reader. The agent was
forced onto a weaker evidence fragment — the opposite of the point.
Matching now canonicalizes inline links to their label and drops
emphasis/code markers and backslash escapes on both sides, so quoting
the sentence a reader sees works. Paraphrases are still rejected.
- Escaped asterisks (HLA-B\*27) no longer have to be reproduced in the
quote, so extractor artifacts stop leaking into rendered evidence.
- New `render --replace-in <draft>`: rewrites a draft's Sources block in
place, idempotently. Previously the only path was hand-slicing the
file, which also tripped over the emitted heading being `## Sources`
while the prose said "Sources:".
- verify stats: report the provenance total that the percentage is
actually computed from (cited + [unverified], counted once), and print
the line as `info:` instead of `warn:` when nothing is wrong. The old
line printed 17 cited / 2 unverified next to 72%, which does not
reconcile — a sentence can be both.
- SKILL.md documents the emitted heading, --replace-in, and exactly what
counts as a prose sentence for --min-coverage.
7 new tests (47 total) using the real MedlinePlus/Frontiers markup;
6 sabotage runs, all red.
Extends the citation ledger with evidence-backed fact-checking:
- New `quote` subcommand attaches verbatim supporting quotes to a
source; the quote is rejected unless it appears verbatim
(whitespace/case-insensitive) in the fetched page text, so a
paraphrase or misremembered figure cannot masquerade as evidence.
- `verify --evidence` fails a draft whose cited sources carry no
attached quote.
- `render --style evidence` prints each source's quotes beneath its
URL, showing the claim -> source -> exact-text chain.
- `[unverified]` marker declares model-knowledge claims; counts toward
--min-coverage so provenance is declared for every sentence without
forcing fake citations.
- SKILL.md: new Fact-Checking Mode section + pitfalls; version 1.1.0.
- 10 new tests (40 total), all proven live by sabotage runs.
Covers the fact-checking/evidence-transparency half of #28289.
Answers and written deliverables that rest on retrieved information now get
inline numbered citations plus a mechanically-rendered Sources list, with a
persistent ledger that makes a hallucinated citation detectable.
- skills/research/grounded-citations/scripts/sources.py: stdlib citation
ledger (add/ingest/list/render/verify) at
$HERMES_HOME/cache/citations/ledger.json, profile-aware, O_EXCL-locked so
parallel subagents sharing a ledger can't collide on ids
- SKILL.md: cite-while-drafting procedure, register-at-retrieval rule,
pitfalls, verification gate
- references/citation-formats.md: per-target placement (markdown, LaTeX/PDF,
docx, pptx, xlsx, wiki, BibTeX handoff to research-paper-writing)
- references/grounding-rationale.md: why numbered ids (ALCE 2305.14627,
WebGPT 2112.09332, Perplexity marker conventions), and how this relates to
the in-process registry in PR #44833
- tests/skills/test_grounded_citations_skill.py: 30 tests
Teknium