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Use when about to cite a source, statistic, or quote - forces verification against the actual source before the claim leaves your hands
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Based on SOC occupation classification
Use when the meta-builder routes to kind=discipline. Generates a discipline spell with the rule, excuses table, warning signs, and hard gates.
Use when the user wants to capture a repeatable task as a reusable spell, or asks "how do I build a workflow / skill / framework for X"
Use when the meta-builder routes to kind=subagent. Generates a spell that dispatches one or more subagents to do work in parallel or in isolation.
Use when the meta-builder routes to kind=workflow. Generates a workflow spell with explicit stages, checkpoints, and loop-back conditions.
Use when composing multiple spells into a chain that runs end-to-end (e.g. brainstorm -> plan -> execute -> verify).
Use when browsing what spells are available - bundled seeds, your personal library, or both. Filter by kind, audience, or update status.
| name | verifying-before-citing |
| description | Use when about to cite a source, statistic, or quote - forces verification against the actual source before the claim leaves your hands |
| kind | discipline |
| audience | anyone |
| ai-tools | any |
| complexity | simple |
| time | 1-3 min per claim |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| source | bundled |
Forces every cited claim, statistic, quote, or attribution to be verified against the actual primary source before it appears in writing. Eliminates "secondhand citation drift" — the failure mode where a claim is true at the start of a citation chain but mangled by the third repetition.
A claim that you have personally verified against the primary source, OR an explicit hedge ("according to X, who cites Y, which I have not verified") OR the claim removed.
This is a discipline. The behavioral structure is: a non-negotiable rule (below), an excuses-and-counters table to defeat rationalizations, warning signs to spot the moment of risk, and a hard gate that fires before publishing. Apply the gate at every citation; verify, hedge, or cut.
Every cited claim, quote, statistic, or attribution must be verified against the primary source — opened, read in context — before it leaves your hands. If you cannot, you must hedge explicitly or remove the claim.
| If you think... | Reality |
|---|---|
| "I remember reading this" | Memory drifts. Open the source. |
| "I've cited this before" | The source may have updated, or your prior cite may have been wrong. Open the source. |
| "An AI told me this is from X" | AI-attributed quotes are routinely fabricated or misattributed. Verify or remove. |
| "It's a famous quote, everyone knows it's from X" | Famous quotes are misattributed at the highest rates. Especially these. Verify. |
| "I'm short on time" | The cost of a wrong citation lasts longer than the time to verify it. Verify. |
| "It's a small detail" | Small wrong details destroy credibility for the rest. Verify. |
| "The secondary source seems reliable" | Even reliable secondaries get details wrong. Open the primary. |
| "I'll mark it for fact-check later" | "Later" doesn't happen. Verify now or hedge now or cut now. |
If any answer is no — verify now, or hedge explicitly, or remove. No exceptions.
Without skill: "As Einstein said, 'If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.'"
With skill: STOP. Verify. The quote is widely attributed to Einstein but has no primary source — it's likely a 20th-century paraphrase of Rutherford. Two options:
Either is honest. The verbatim attribution to Einstein is not.
