Grounded Citations Researcher

Overview

The Grounded Citations Researcher is a built-in skill shipped with Hermes Agent v0.20 ("The Herald Release," August 3, 2026). It provides source-backed research with automatic fact-checking — every claim in the agent's output is tied to a retrieved source, and the agent flags statements it cannot ground.

This is not a separate install. It ships as part of the core Hermes Agent v0.20 release and activates automatically when the agent detects research-heavy workflows, or when explicitly invoked.

What it does

• Source-backed answers: Every factual claim in the response includes an inline citation to a retrieved web source
• Fact-checking layer: The agent cross-references claims against multiple sources before presenting them as fact
• Abstention on uncertainty: When the agent cannot find a reliable source, it says so explicitly rather than hallucinating — the "cite or abstain" principle, built in
• Citation formatting: Sources are formatted as clickable links with title, URL, and retrieval date
• Conflict surfacing: When sources disagree, the agent presents the conflict rather than picking one silently

How it differs from web search

Standard web search returns results; the Grounded Citations Researcher returns answers with provenance. The difference matters for:

• Research workflows where you need to verify claims, not just find pages
• Compliance contexts where every statement needs a traceable source
• Knowledge work where "I don't know" is more valuable than a confident hallucination

Quick start

1. Update to Hermes Agent v0.20 or later: hermes update or via Agent OS → Manage → Update
2. Ensure web search is enabled in your tool configuration
3. Ask a research question — the agent will automatically apply citation grounding when it detects a research context
4. Review inline citations in the response; click through to verify sources

Use cases

• Literature reviews: Gather and cite sources on a topic with automatic provenance
• Competitive intelligence: Research competitors with traceable, verifiable claims
• Technical due diligence: Verify vendor claims against independent sources before committing
• Content research: Build articles or reports with citations ready to publish
• Fact-checking workflows: Cross-reference claims from other agents or sources

Limitations

• Depends on web search quality: Citations are only as good as the sources the search tool returns
• Not a replacement for expert review: Grounded citations reduce hallucination risk but do not eliminate it — human review still needed for high-stakes claims
• Latency overhead: Source retrieval and cross-referencing add time compared to ungrounded responses
• Source bias: The agent cites what it finds; if search results are biased, citations will reflect that bias

Related

• Prefer Cite or Abstain — the principle this skill implements
• Never Trust a Hallucination — complementary defensive practice
• Web Research Summarizer — broader research skill without the citation layer