Is the CiteCheck skill free?

Yes. The skill itself is free from color4-alt/CiteCheck. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.

What is the CiteCheck SkillProof Score?

8.4/10 — installs cleanly 4/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 9/10, docs & honesty 3/5.

How do I install CiteCheck?

Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.

Can I use CiteCheck with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?

The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.

CiteCheck

Verifies paper citations exist and are relevant via Crossref/Semantic Scholar plus agent reasoning

by color4-alt · color4-alt/CiteCheck

Works with setup

Install — copy the command Download source ↗

Test report

Verdict: Works with setup
Score: 8.4/10
Tested: Jul 14, 2026
Environment: Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)
Upstream re-checked: Aug 10, 2026 · 6283cf9

Ran the real CLI on a synthetic paper with a fabricated 2099-dated reference and it correctly flagged the suspicious year while the fake title returned no real match on a live Crossref query — but the SKILL.md's own Dependencies section says `pip install CiteCheck`, which actually installs an unrelated static-analysis package on PyPI; the real one is `pip install citecheck-cli` (confirmed via the repo's pyproject.toml and both PyPI JSON records).

Scored on four weighted criteria — install, triggering, output vs. baseline, docs. How scoring works

Installs cleanly 4/5
Triggers reliably 5/5
Output vs. baseline 9/10
Docs & honesty 3/5

What CiteCheck does

Parses references out of a LaTeX or PDF paper, runs a format check (missing fields, bad DOIs, suspicious years), verifies each reference actually exists via Crossref/Semantic Scholar/OpenAlex/arXiv and friends, then has the calling agent itself score thematic and semantic relevance against the citing text. Triggers on 'verify citations', 'check references', or 'validate paper citations'.

How to install CiteCheck

git clone https://github.com/color4-alt/CiteCheck
cd CiteCheck
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r skills/citecheck ~/.claude/skills/citecheck

Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ (per-project). Restart Claude Code after installing.

Commands — how to trigger CiteCheck

/citecheck Verifies paper citations exist and are relevant via Crossref/Semantic Scholar plus agent reasoning

It also activates on plain-language prompts like these:

Verify the citations in my LaTeX paper are legit
Check if the references in this manuscript actually exist
Validate the citations in my paper before I submit it

Frequently asked questions

Is the CiteCheck skill free?: Yes. The skill itself is free from color4-alt/CiteCheck. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.
Does CiteCheck work with Claude Code?: We tested it with Claude Code 2.x (agent harness) on Jul 14, 2026. Verdict: Works with setup. Ran the real CLI on a synthetic paper with a fabricated 2099-dated reference and it correctly flagged the suspicious year while the fake title returned no real match on a live Crossref query — but the SKILL.md's own Dependencies section says `pip install CiteCheck`, which actually installs an unrelated static-analysis package on PyPI; the real one is `pip install citecheck-cli` (confirmed via the repo's pyproject.toml and both PyPI JSON records).
What is the CiteCheck SkillProof Score?: 8.4/10 — installs cleanly 4/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 9/10, docs & honesty 3/5.
How do I install CiteCheck?: Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.
Can I use CiteCheck with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?: The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.