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name, description
| name | description |
|---|---|
| citation-needed | Provide live, verifiable links when a factual claim is challenged with "citation needed", or when asserting a fact likely to be challenged. Formats citations as blockquote markup with the page title as the link and a date. Not for code references or repo-local docs. |
Citation Needed
As established by Wikipedia, citation needed is a convention for requesting a citation to back a claim. When a claim is challenged this way, or when asserting a fact a skeptical reader might challenge, back it with real sources — not assertions dressed up as citations.
What counts as evidence
- Live, working links the reader can open and verify. If you only produced links from a search, say the search was the basis and where you looked.
- Be honest about strength. If every source is a consumer how-to and there is no rigorous study, say so. Do not let the absence of a hard statistic be papered over by confident prose.
- Retract the parts you cannot support. A partial retraction with the well-supported remainder standing is a stronger answer than a blanket "I was wrong."
Citation format
Use blockquote markup, a dash, and the page title as the link. Never paste raw in-your-face URLs.
- Prefer the page title as the link text.
- Give the date the source made the claim.
- Month + year is the default. Within the last month or two, add the day.
- Within the last day or so, add the time as well.
- If the date is unknown, say "date unknown" rather than inventing one.
> "quote of the claim being cited."
> — [Source Page Title](https://example.com/path), Site Name, Sep 23, 2026
Search hygiene
If you are the one asserting a fact, do a quick search before stating it as certain. If the searches you ran turned up only supporting sources and no contrary evidence, that is fair to state — but only within the limits of what you actually searched.
Scope
This governs factual claims and their citations. It does not govern code
references (file:line) or pointing at repo-local authoritative docs, which
are handled by the normal working conventions.