# CiteTrue

> Verify and find academic citations programmatically. Detects AI-hallucinated references and broken DOIs; searches Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, PubMed, arXiv, and more.

CiteTrue resolves each reference in a piece of academic writing against bibliographic
databases and reports whether the cited work exists and whether the details match the
record. Every verdict traces back to a database lookup — CiteTrue does not ask a
language model whether a paper exists.

## About

- [About CiteTrue](https://citetrue.com/about): methodology, the databases queried, what each verdict means, and the documented limits of automated checking.
- [Pricing](https://citetrue.com/pricing): free tier (30 verifications per day) plus Plus / Pro / Expert subscriptions.
- [Contact](https://citetrue.com/contact): questions, corrections, and reports of a wrong verdict.
- Also available as a [Chrome extension](https://citetrue.com/apps/crx) and a [Mac app](https://citetrue.com/apps/mac).

## Key facts

- Two verification passes: **Fast Verify** (default, 1 credit per reference, metadata match against baseline databases) and **Deep Verify** (on demand, extra 5× credits, wider database coverage plus an AI agent that derives multiple search strategies).
- Verdicts: `Authentic` (matching publication found, details agree), `Unsure` (candidate found, not fully confirmed), `Inauthentic` (no matching publication — usually fabricated or badly mistyped). Edge states: `Invalid`, `Error`, `Exceeded`. Verdicts carry a confidence score.
- Fields checked per reference: title, authors, year, DOI/identifier, venue, volume, pages.
- Sources queried: Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, PubMed, arXiv, CORE, Open Library, Google Scholar, IEEE, ACM, Springer, Wiley, Elsevier, ScienceDirect, BioMed Central, Cambridge University Press.
- Limits: not a plagiarism checker; coverage is uneven for very recent work, non-English publications, books, theses and grey literature; a verdict is evidence, not a ruling.
- Interfaces: web app, Chrome extension, Mac app, REST API, MCP server. UI available in 11 languages.

## Docs

- [API reference (LLM-friendly)](https://citetrue.com/docs/api.md): complete API docs in plain markdown — endpoints, SSE event shapes, assessment values, credit costs, error codes.
- [API reference (HTML)](https://citetrue.com/docs/api): same content as above, with interactive ToC and code-block highlighting.
- [MCP server (LLM-friendly)](https://citetrue.com/docs/mcp.md): `@citetrue/mcp-server` — wraps the API as MCP tools for Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.
- [MCP server (HTML)](https://citetrue.com/docs/mcp): setup instructions, client configs, tool reference.
- [Guides](https://citetrue.com/docs/guides): user-facing how-tos — getting started, supported citation formats, understanding results, deep verify, FAQ.
- [FAQ](https://citetrue.com/docs/guides/faq): common questions about coverage, accuracy, credits and billing.

## Blog

- [Blog](https://citetrue.com/blog): guides on citations, references and academic writing. RSS: https://citetrue.com/blog/rss.xml
- [How to Humanize AI-Generated Text Without Losing a Single Citation](https://citetrue.com/blog/humanize-ai-text-without-losing-citations): what an AI humanizer should change, what it must never touch (facts, numbers, citations), and a five-step workflow.
- [Paper Draft: How to Find Real Academic Sources for Any Topic](https://citetrue.com/blog/find-real-academic-sources-for-any-topic): why chatbots fabricate references, and how a sources-first drafting tool (Paper Draft) turns a topic into a draft where every sentence cites a retrieved paper.

## Endpoints

- Base URL: `https://api.citetrue.com`
- `POST /verify/v2`: split text into refs and verify each. Modes: `text`, `refHash`+`parentTaskHash` (deeper-depth upgrade), or `taskHash` (resume). Streams SSE.
- `POST /find/v1`: find papers that back up the claims in a piece of text. Streams SSE.
- `GET /credits`: current credit balance for the account.
- `GET /credit-rules`: machine-readable cost table (unauthenticated).

## MCP

- Package: `@citetrue/mcp-server` (npm)
- Transport: stdio
- Tools: `verify`, `find`, `get_credits`
- Auth: `CITETRUE_API_KEY` env var (same API key as the REST API).