rag-cite-sources

name	rag-cite-sources
description	Every technical claim drawn from the local corpus must ship with a source citation formatted as path:line or path:section. Trigger whenever the response quotes, paraphrases, or acts on knowledge that came from a search_knowledge or get_document call. Makes answers auditable and lets the user jump to source in one click.
metadata	{"type":"rag-workflow","kind":"foundation","target":"any-mcp-client"}

rag-cite-sources — every claim traces to a source

When to use this skill

Whenever an answer contains any of these:

• A specific number, threshold, config value, or version taken from the corpus
• A statement about how the system currently works, was designed, or was decided
• A code snippet, function signature, or API contract quoted from indexed files
• A "the runbook says", "the ADR says", "the RFC decided", "we agreed" claim
• A recommendation grounded in prior team practice

Basically: if a curious reader would want to double-check where you got that, cite.

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What this skill commits to

Every technical claim in the response carries a citation of the form:

• [path/to/file.md:42] — line-anchored (from search_knowledge result's source field)
• [path/to/file.md#section-heading] — section-anchored for Markdown
• [path/to/file.md] — file-only, when line/section is not available

Citations are inline at the point of the claim, not batched at the end. One claim = one citation.

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Steps

1. When you call search_knowledge or get_document, capture:

   • The source field (usually the file path)
   • The filename (short name for display)
   • Any chunk_id or line hint in the metadata
   • The actual content you are about to quote or paraphrase

2. When you draft the response, mark every fact-carrying sentence with its source. Preferred inline syntax:

   Per ADR-0018 [docs/adr/0018-auth.md], the payment service uses mTLS between services.
   The retry policy is 3 attempts with exponential backoff [services/payment/retry.py].
   

3. If quoting verbatim, use fenced blockquote + citation:

   > "All external API calls must timeout after 30 seconds."
   > — [docs/architecture/http-contracts.md#timeouts]
   

4. If synthesizing across multiple sources, cite each:

   The service uses OAuth2 [docs/adr/0018-auth.md] with a 15-minute access token TTL
   [config/auth.yaml:12] and refresh-token rotation on every use [docs/security/oauth-flow.md].
   

5. When a claim is NOT from the corpus (general knowledge, external doc, your own reasoning), mark it explicitly:

   Per [docs/adr/0018-auth.md] we use OAuth2. Note that OAuth2 spec (RFC 6749, external)
   also allows client-credentials flow, which the ADR does not mention.
   

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Examples

Example 1 — Answering a config question

User: "What is our default request timeout?"

Agent:

search_knowledge(query="default request timeout") →
1 hit: config/http.yaml (line 8, score 0.87)

Reply: "The default request timeout is 30 seconds [config/http.yaml:8].
This is enforced globally by the HTTP client middleware [services/common/http_client.py:45]."

Example 2 — Code review

User: "Is this retry logic correct?"

Agent:

search_knowledge(query="retry policy exponential backoff") →
2 hits: docs/adr/0031-retries.md (0.79), services/common/retry.py (0.65)

Reply: "Per our retry ADR [docs/adr/0031-retries.md], the policy is
'3 attempts, exponential backoff starting at 1s, max 30s'. Your code
retries 5 times which exceeds the standard. Adjust to match
services/common/retry.py:12–28 or open a new ADR to document
the exception."

Example 3 — Explicit no-source note

User: "Should we use gRPC instead of REST for the new service?"

Agent:

search_knowledge(query="grpc rest choice") → 0 hits

Reply: "The corpus does not have a decision on gRPC vs REST for new services
(no ADR indexed on this). Answering from general considerations [not from corpus]:
gRPC gives you… [reasoning]. Recommend: open an ADR with the tradeoffs before
committing."

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Edge cases

• Chunk mid-sentence — if search_knowledge returns a chunk that starts mid-paragraph, call get_document(filepath=<source>) to fetch context before quoting.
• Very long paths — abbreviate for readability, keep the full path in a footnote:

  Per the retry ADR [ADR-0031¹], we use exponential backoff.
  ¹ docs/architecture/decisions/0031-retries-and-timeouts.md
  

• Non-file sources (URL-ingested content) — cite the original URL from the document's metadata:

  Per RFC 9110 §15.5.9 [https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9110, indexed
  via add_from_url on 2026-05-14], 425 Too Early is idempotent-safe.
  

• The corpus contradicts itself — cite both sources and flag the conflict explicitly:

  Conflicting sources: [docs/adr/0018-auth.md] says 15-min TTL, but
  [config/auth.yaml:12] shows 30-min. Recommend resolving the ADR vs config
  drift before answering with certainty.
  

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Related skills

• rag-check-first — the prerequisite: search happens first, citations follow.
• rag-deep-dive — chained citations across a full drill-down.
• rag-code-review — code review is where citation discipline pays off most.