citation-guard

citation-guard

A Claude Code hook that makes the first level of citation-verifier continuous. Every time a chapter file is edited, the cite keys in it are checked against the bibliography; a key with no entry is reported immediately as context, with the instruction to add it from a real identifier via bibtex-manager rather than to invent one.

• Recognises LaTeX (\cite, \citep, \citet, \parencite, \textcite, \autocite, \footcite, \citeauthor, \citeyear, with optional arguments and stars) and Pandoc Markdown ([@key], [@a; @b, p. 3], in-text @key). Code blocks and emails are ignored.
• Finds the .bib from citationGuard.bibFile in config, else the nearest .bib walking up from the edited file, else any .bib in the project (four levels deep). No .bib means silence.
• On a .bib edit, reports duplicate keys and entries with no doi, eprint, url, or howpublished, which citation-verifier will not be able to check.
• Context, not a block. The edit already happened; Claude sees the problem and fixes it next.
• Fails open, zero dependencies (node >= 18).

Files

Activate it (required manual step)

Add this to .claude/settings.json (project) or ~/.claude/settings.json (global):

{
  "hooks": {
    "PostToolUse": [
      {
        "matcher": "Edit|Write|MultiEdit",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "node \"$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR/.claude/hooks/citation-guard/citation-guard.mjs\""
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Installing the thesis plugin from the dotclaude marketplace wires this automatically.

Verify it

printf 'See \\cite{ghost2099}.\n' > chapters/test.tex
echo '{"tool_name":"Edit","tool_input":{"file_path":"'$PWD'/chapters/test.tex"},"cwd":"'$PWD'"}' \
  | node .claude/hooks/citation-guard/citation-guard.mjs

You should see a JSON object whose additionalContext names ghost2099 as undefined.

Tune it

{
  "citationGuard": {
    "enabled": true,
    "bibFile": "references.bib"
  }
}

Set bibFile when the project has several .bib files and only one is the thesis bibliography.

Hooks run arbitrary commands on your machine with your credentials whenever their event fires. Read any hook script (including this one) before enabling it.