Troubleshooting: Claude hallucinating references in long outputs
Claude is inserting plausible-sounding but non-existent citations in multi-chapter outputs; need strategies to force verifiable references or integrate citation checks into the workflow.
Answers
Approved replies, operator insight, and tactical follow-up from the community.
Concrete steps:
1) Use RAG—provide the canonical source set and instruct “only cite from this set; include exact URL/DOI.”
2) Chunk long outputs by chapter; after each chunk, output a citation table (title, URL, confidence).
3) Automate verification (HTTP HEAD/DOI resolver + fallback web search) to flag non-existent refs and replace unverifiable ones with [UNVERIFIED].
4) Add a hard system rule: refuse to fabricate citations.
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