| name | convert |
| title | cite2footnote |
| description | Convert hyperlinked citations in a Word document (.docx) to Bluebook-formatted footnotes or endnotes. Use when the user mentions bluebook, footnote, endnote, citation conversion, or asks to convert citations. |
| author | anitasrinivasan |
| author_url | https://github.com/anitasrinivasan/cite2fn/tree/main/skills/cite2footnote |
| license | MIT |
| version | 0.1.0 |
| execution_mode | open |
| jurisdiction | general |
| practice | general |
| language | en |
cite2footnote
Convert citations (hyperlinked, parenthetical, inline author-date) in a .docx document to Bluebook-formatted footnotes or endnotes.
When to use
When the user provides a .docx file and asks to convert citations to Bluebook footnotes/endnotes, or mentions "bluebook", "footnote", "endnote", or "citation conversion".
Prerequisites
The cite2fn Python package must be installed. If python3 -m cite2fn.cli detect --help fails, install it first:
pip install -e <plugin_directory>
Where <plugin_directory> is the root of the cite2fn plugin (the directory containing pyproject.toml). You can find it by looking for the cite2fn package in the plugin's install location.
Workflow
Step 1: Detect citations
Run citation detection on the input document:
python3 -m cite2fn.cli detect "<input.docx>"
This outputs JSON with all detected citations. Present a summary to the user:
- Count by type (hyperlink_external, hyperlink_internal, parenthetical, inline_author_date, existing_footnote)
- List any citations with issues (no URL, no year, etc.)
- Ask if the user wants footnotes or endnotes
Step 2: Parse references (if applicable)
If the document has internal-anchor hyperlinks or parenthetical citations without URLs, parse the references section:
python3 -m cite2fn.cli parse-references "<input.docx>"
Match citations to reference entries to get full bibliographic information.
Step 3: Fetch URL metadata
For citations with external URLs, fetch metadata:
- Write the list of unique URLs to a temp JSON file
- Run:
python3 -m cite2fn.cli fetch-urls <urls.json>
- This returns metadata (title, authors, journal, year, etc.) for each URL
Step 4: Format citations in Bluebook
For each citation, use ALL available information to generate proper Bluebook formatting. You have:
- Display text from the document
- URL and fetched metadata (title, authors, journal, year, DOI)
- Matched reference entry text (from References section)
- Surrounding sentence context
Apply these Bluebook 21st edition rules:
- Journal articles: Author, , Volume First_Page (Year).
