| name | bluebook |
| title | Bluebook 21st Edition Citation |
| description | This skill should be used when the user asks to “cite a case”, “format a citation”, “check Bluebook format”, “cite a statute”, “use id. or supra”, “format footnotes”, “cite a law review article”, or needs Bluebook 21st Edition citation guidance. |
| author | edwinhu |
| author_url | https://github.com/edwinhu/workflows/tree/main/skills/bluebook |
| license | MIT |
| version | 0.1.0 |
| execution_mode | open |
| jurisdiction | general |
| practice | general |
| language | en |
Bluebook 21st Edition Citation
Citation formatting for law reviews and legal scholarship per The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (21st ed. 2020).
Announce: “I’m using the bluebook skill for citation formatting.”
When to Use
Invoke this skill for:
- Formatting case citations (federal, state, foreign)
- Statutory and regulatory citations
- Secondary sources (books, articles, treatises)
- Short form citations (id., supra, hereinafter)
- Introductory signals and parentheticals
- Citation sentences vs. citation clauses
For legal writing style: Use /writing-legal skill (Volokh)
For general writing: Use /writing skill (Strunk & White)
## IRON LAW #1: NO CITATION WITHOUT VERIFICATION
If you haven’t verified EVERY element of a citation, DO NOT write it.
Before writing ANY citation:
- Verify case name spelling and procedural posture
- Verify reporter volume and page numbers
- Verify court and year
- Verify pinpoint page exists
Guessing reporter volumes or page numbers is NOT HELPFUL — the user publishes with wrong citations that fail verification. Period.
## IRON LAW #2: NO SHORT FORMS WITHOUT FULL CITATION FIRST
Id., supra, and hereinafter REQUIRE a preceding full citation.
Before using ANY short form:
- Locate the full citation in the document
- Verify no intervening citations (for id.)
- Verify the supra reference is unambiguous
Using id. after intervening citations creates ambiguity. Delete and cite in full.
## IRON LAW #3: FOOTNOTE VS. TEXT CITATION FORMAT
Law review citations use footnote format (Rule 1). Court documents use text format (Bluepages).
FOOTNOTE (law reviews): Smith v. Jones, 500 U.S. 1, 5 (1991).
TEXT (court documents): Smith v. Jones, 500 U.S. 1, 5 (1991)
FOOTNOTE (statutes): 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (2018).
TEXT (statutes): 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (2018)
If writing for a law review and using text format conventions, DELETE and reformat.
The Gate Function
Before writing ANY citation:
1. IDENTIFY → What type of source? (case, statute, article, book)
2. LOCATE → Find the correct rule in Bluebook
3. VERIFY → Confirm ALL elements (volume, page, court, year)
4. FORMAT → Apply correct typeface and punctuation
5. CHECK → Does this match examples in the rule?
6. WRITE → Only after steps 1-5
