ref-verify

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Stop citing papers that do not say what you think they say.

ref-verify is an agent skill for citation verification. It helps Claude Code,
Cursor, Codex, and other skill-aware agents check references before they land in
your draft.

Use it when you want an agent to find papers, verify a DOI, check whether a paper
supports a specific claim, or audit references before submission. No server setup is required.

Install the skill

# requires npx (comes with Node.js)
npx skills add Moonweave-Research/ref-verify -g \
  --skill ref-verify \
  --agent claude-code cursor codex \
  -y

Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and any agent that supports the
npx skills ecosystem.

After installation, use it like a normal agent skill. You do not start a server and you do not configure MCP for this workflow. No MCP server is required for this workflow.

Use it

Ask naturally:

verify these citations before I submit: [DOI list]
does this paper actually support the claim "actuation strain above 100%"?
find 3 papers supporting the claim that X, and verify each citation
check doi 10.1126/science.287.5454.836 against this title and year
audit all my references before submission

ref-verify stays quiet for general topic questions, prose editing, APA/IEEE
formatting, and citation style questions.

Optional CLI engine

The skill is the agent workflow. The Python CLI is the skill-level execution engine that the installed skill can call from a terminal.

This is a skill/plugin-level workflow, not an MCP server. The CLI covers the
checks that are currently safe to automate directly:

• CrossRef metadata check: ref-verify verify-doi
• CrossRef abstract claim check: ref-verify check-claim
• JSON output for agent-readable routing
• Non-zero exit codes for WARN, REJECT, and UNVERIFIABLE results

DOI landing-page checks still use the skill protocol. Still handled by the skill protocol: Semantic Scholar, Unpaywall, arXiv, PubMed fallback checks, two-source existence checks, and retraction checks remain in SKILL.md.

Install the CLI from a local checkout:

git clone https://github.com/Moonweave-Research/ref-verify.git
cd ref-verify
python3 -m pip install -e .

Check whether the CLI is available:

ref-verify --help

If you are working from an uninstalled source checkout, use the module
entrypoint:

PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m ref_verify.cli --help

Run a DOI metadata check:

ref-verify verify-doi 10.1126/science.287.5454.836 \
  --title "High-Speed Electrically Actuated Elastomers with Strain Greater Than 100%" \
  --first-author Pelrine \
  --year 2000 \
  --json

Run a claim check against the CrossRef abstract:

ref-verify check-claim 10.1126/science.287.5454.836 \
  --claim "actuation strain above 100%" \
  --json

Source-checkout equivalents:

PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m ref_verify.cli verify-doi 10.1126/science.287.5454.836 \
  --title "High-Speed Electrically Actuated Elastomers with Strain Greater Than 100%" \
  --first-author Pelrine \
  --year 2000 \
  --json

PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m ref_verify.cli check-claim 10.1126/science.287.5454.836 \
  --claim "actuation strain above 100%" \
  --json

For local development, run:

PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -v

What it catches

Modes

Quick Screen is for DOIs you already have. It uses CrossRef to compare the
provided DOI, title, first-author surname, and year.

ref-verify verify-doi <doi> --title "<title>" --first-author <last-name> --year <year> --json

verify-doi exits 0 only for PASS. WARN and REJECT return a non-zero
exit code, so weak or mismatched metadata cannot silently pass automation gates.

Full Audit is for literature search and final pre-submission review. The
skill fetches abstracts through CrossRef, Semantic Scholar, Unpaywall, arXiv,
and PubMed where needed, then checks whether the paper supports the specific
claim being cited.

For a single DOI-backed claim, the CLI can run the CrossRef abstract portion:

ref-verify check-claim <doi> --claim "<specific claim>" --json

check-claim exits 0 only for ACCEPT. WARN, PARTIAL, and
UNVERIFIABLE return a non-zero exit code.

Core rule: every content statement about a paper must come from a live-fetched
abstract. If the abstract is inaccessible after fallback checks, say
UNVERIFIABLE. Do not fill the gap from memory.

Examples

Checking citations you already have

User: "verify these 3 citations before I submit"

Shahinpoor & Kim (2001) 10.1088/0964-1726/10/4/327 - PASS
Bar-Cohen (2004)        10.1117/3.547465            - WARN  (listed as author; CrossRef: editor)
Carpi et al. (2011)     10.1016/B978-0-08-047488-5.00001-0 - REJECT

Checking a specific claim

User: "does the Pelrine 2000 paper actually say DEAs reach over 100% strain?"

CONTENT: Supported
"Actuated strains up to 117% were demonstrated with silicone elastomers,
and up to 215% with acrylic elastomers."
[Source: CrossRef raw JSON, not recalled from memory]

Near-miss citation

A candidate paper may contain "500% strain", but the abstract can show that the
number is a pre-strain condition, not an actuation result. ref-verify reports
that as WARN (PARTIAL) instead of accepting the citation.

Related

• anneal-skill - measure-first decision discipline for AI agents
• decide-skill - decision automation for non-expert domains