| name | citation-format |
| title | citation-format |
| description | Normalize messy citation strings ("CVC 23152a", "California Vehicle Code Section 23152(a)") into canonical form ("Cal. Veh. Code § 23152(a)") before passing to harvester-query. |
| author | barndonmai |
| author_url | https://github.com/barndonmai/specter/tree/main/openclaw/skills/citation_format |
| license | MIT |
| version | 0.1.0 |
| execution_mode | open |
| jurisdiction | us |
| practice | general |
| language | en |
citation-format
Users (and judges, on live demo queries) will type citations any number of ways. The Harvester's /lookup is exact-string match — it'll miss otherwise valid citations because of formatting drift. This skill normalizes them.
When to use this skill
- Right before calling
harvester-query.lookup_citation(...) if the user-provided citation isn't already in canonical form.
- When you're not sure if a citation is canonical, just run it through
normalize() — it's idempotent.
Canonical form (CA Vehicle Code example)
Cal. Veh. Code § 23152(a)
Cal. Veh. Code — the universal citation prefix (state-specific)§ — section sign with thin spaces23152(a) — section number with subsection
Use
from openclaw.skills.citation_format.normalize import normalize
normalize("CVC 23152a")
normalize("California Vehicle Code Section 23152(a)")
normalize("cal veh § 23152(a)")
From shell:
cd ~/Specter && python3 openclaw/skills/citation_format/normalize.py "CVC 23152a"
Rules of thumb
- If you have already-canonical form (
Cal. Veh. Code § 23152(a)), pass through unchanged.
- If user gives just a section number (
23152(a)) and context is clearly California, prepend Cal. Veh. Code § .
- Don't guess across jurisdictions. If the user just says "23152(a)" with no state, ask which state. Don't default to CA silently.
Out of scope
- Case citations (e.g. Smith v. Jones) — this is statute-only.
- Federal citations (CFR, USC) — vehicle codes are state-level.
- Resolving statutes that have been renumbered. Out of scope for hackathon.
