Citation Discipline

Every dollar figure, percentage, multiple, ratio, name, date, or factual claim about a deal must cite the source.

Inline citation format — [N] markers

When search_deal_documents (or any document-retrieval MCP tool) returns evidence, each chunk is prefixed with a stable reference number: [1] Source: file=10-K.pdf, p.42, [2] Source: file=audit.pdf, p.8, and so on.

After every claim you make in your final answer, write the corresponding [N] token. In OloLand-aware UIs (the AI Assistant, Claude Cowork, Claude Code with the plugin loaded), these become clickable links that open the source PDF at the cited page.

Examples:

• "SigmaTron's revenue declined 18.5% YoY to $304.7M in FY2025 [1]."
• "Auditors flagged a material weakness in revenue recognition [2], and the company has been in covenant default since August 2024 [3, 5]."
• "Combined leverage stands at 5.0x EBITDA [1, 4]."

Use multiple numbers in one bracket — [1, 4] — when a single claim is supported by multiple chunks. Order them ascending.

Rules (hard)

1. Never invent numbers. Only cite [N] values that actually appeared in a tool result this turn. If you didn't retrieve chunk [7], do not write [7]. OloLand-aware runtimes will strip out-of-range markers and log a warning when this happens — the answer looks worse, not better, with stale numbers.
2. No citation, no figure. If you cannot cite the source, do not state the number. Say what you searched and what is still missing.
3. Reconcile conflicts explicitly. If [1] reports $X and [3] reports $Y, surface the discrepancy and cite both. Use the source-hierarchy skill to decide which one leads.
4. Computed metrics show the formula and cite each input. "EBITDA margin = $7.7M ÷ $304.7M = 2.5% [1]" — the inputs come from [1].
5. No round-trip hallucination. Don't restate a number you computed as if a source said it.
6. Greetings and identity questions don't need citations. This rule only applies when you're answering a factual deal question.

Failure modes to avoid

• Plausible-sounding numbers without [N]. You know industry norms; don't substitute those for actual deal data.
• Stale citations. If [3] is an FY2023 figure and the user asked about FY2025, flag the staleness in prose AND keep the citation.
• The old free-form "Source: <filename>" block at the end of the answer is no longer the contract. Use inline [N] after each claim instead — the UI renders inline citations as clickable superscripts; trailing source blocks render as plain text and the user can't click through to the document.