Attribution format is consistent across response types
Why it matters
Ad-hoc citation language — sometimes [1], sometimes "according to the docs," sometimes nothing — prevents the UI from rendering clickable references, breaks footnote components, and forces users to scroll back and hunt for sources. This degrades the user-experience taxon and undermines the inference-contract: users cannot verify claims when citations are inconsistent or absent. Support teams cannot build tooling on top of an undefined format, and audit trails for regulated industries become unworkable.
Severity rationale
Low because responses remain usable, but citation inconsistency erodes verifiability and UI polish over time.
Remediation
Define a single citation format in the system prompt (inline numbered brackets plus a trailing reference list) and add matching UI components to render the markers as clickable footnotes. Update the prompt in lib/ai/prompts.ts and the renderer in components/ai/citations.tsx.
const systemPrompt = `Cite inline with [1], [2]. End with: [1] Title — section, [2] Title — section.`
DetectionPro
The detection method for this pattern is part of AuditBuffet Pro.
The full method (what to look for, pass and fail conditions, and how results get reported) ships inside the AI Response Quality Audit. The pattern definition, severity rationale, and remediation remain openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
Taxons
History
- 2026-04-18·v1.0.0·Initial import from ai-response-quality·automated