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color4-alt/citecheck

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

31PythonAudience · researcherComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

TLDR

A tool that checks whether the citations in an academic paper are correctly formatted, real, on topic, and accurately described.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((CiteCheck))
    What it does
      Verifies citations exist
      Checks formatting
      Checks topic relevance
    Tech stack
      Python
      PyPI package
      Agent skill
    Use cases
      Check a LaTeX paper's references
      Verify a PDF's citations
      Find uncited bibliography entries
    Audience
      Researchers
      Academic writers

Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Run CiteCheck on a LaTeX project to check whether every citation is formatted correctly.

USE CASE 2

Verify that cited papers actually exist by checking them against Crossref, arXiv, and other databases.

USE CASE 3

Check whether each reference in a paper is actually on the same topic as the citing text.

USE CASE 4

Find bibliography entries that are listed but never cited anywhere in the main text.

What is it built with?

PythonLaTeX

How does it compare?

color4-alt/citecheckcoleam00/harness-engineering-demofacebookresearch/autoform-bot
Stars313131
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Setup difficultyeasymoderatehard
Complexity2/53/55/5
Audienceresearcherdeveloperresearcher

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min

Works with no API key as an agent skill inside Claude Code, the standalone CLI mode optionally accepts an OpenAI key for stronger matching.

License terms are not stated in the description, check the repository directly before using or redistributing this code.

In plain English

CiteCheck is a tool for verifying the citations in an academic paper. It can be used in two ways: as an installable skill that works inside AI coding assistants like Claude Code, or as a standalone command-line program. Either way, it takes a LaTeX project or a PDF as input and produces a structured report covering four things: whether each citation is formatted correctly, whether the cited paper can actually be found in public databases, whether each reference is on the same topic as the paper citing it, and whether specific claims made about a reference appear to be accurate. The lookup step queries Crossref, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, PubMed, arXiv, dblp, and Google Scholar in sequence to verify that cited papers exist. Thematic and semantic relevance checks work differently depending on the mode: when run as an agent skill, the host AI handles this reasoning using its own language understanding with no separate API key required. In standalone CLI mode, simple heuristics are used by default, with an optional OpenAI key for stronger matching. Output is a Markdown report listing which citations have formatting problems, which could not be verified in any database, how well each reference matches the paper's theme, and which bibliography entries are never cited in the main text. The skill is designed to work across multiple AI assistants. Installation paths are listed for Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, Hermes, Gemini CLI, and Cursor. The Python package is also available on PyPI for direct command-line use without any AI assistant involved. The project is in active development and accepts contributions with the requirement that the skill file stays compatible across all supported agents.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Install the CiteCheck skill in Claude Code and run it against my LaTeX paper.
Prompt 2
Use CiteCheck to verify that every citation in this PDF actually exists in a public database.
Prompt 3
Show me how to run CiteCheck as a standalone command-line tool from PyPI.
Prompt 4
Explain what CiteCheck's structured report tells me about my paper's citations.

Frequently asked questions

What is citecheck?

A tool that checks whether the citations in an academic paper are correctly formatted, real, on topic, and accurately described.

What language is citecheck written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python, LaTeX.

What license does citecheck use?

License terms are not stated in the description, check the repository directly before using or redistributing this code.

How hard is citecheck to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is citecheck for?

Mainly researcher.

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