Primary Detection Flow:

Input Content
├── Has Citations?
│   ├── YES → Extract Citations
│   │   ├── URL Citation?
│   │   │   ├── Suspicious Pattern? → FLAG (confidence: 0.7)
│   │   │   ├── Network Check Enabled?
│   │   │   │   ├── YES → Fetch URL
│   │   │   │   │   ├── 404/Error → CONFIRM HALLUCINATION (0.9)
│   │   │   │   │   └── Success → VERIFIED (0.9)
│   │   │   │   └── NO → UNVERIFIABLE (0.0)
│   │   │   └── Academic Citation?
│   │   │       ├── Matches Pattern? → Cross-reference if available
│   │   │       └── Malformed? → FLAG (0.6)
│   │   └── Quote Attribution?
│   │       ├── Generic Source? → FLAG (0.5)
│   │       └── Specific Source? → Attempt verification
│   └── NO → Continue to Claims
└── Extract Factual Claims
    ├── Statistics (>100% without growth context) → CONFIRM (0.99)
    ├── Future Dates as Historical Facts → CONFIRM (0.9)
    ├── Negative Counts → CONFIRM (0.99)
    ├── Internal Contradictions?
    │   ├── Same Metric, Different Values → CONFIRM (0.95)
    │   └── Opposing Assertions → FLAG (0.8)
    └── Pattern Matching
        ├── Fake Precision (4+ decimals) → FLAG (0.6)
        ├── Vague Study References → FLAG (0.5)
        └── Round Number Claims → FLAG (0.4)

Action Thresholds:

Confidence ≥ 0.9: BLOCK output, require human review
Confidence 0.7-0.89: FLAG with warning, allow with note
Confidence 0.5-0.69: WARN but proceed
Confidence < 0.5: Note pattern, continue

FAILURE MODES

Rubber Stamp Verification

Symptom: All URLs marked as "verified" without actual checking
Detection: If verification rate >95% and network checking disabled
Fix: Enable network verification or adjust confidence thresholds

False Precision Blindness

Symptom: Statistics like "73.847% improvement" pass without flagging
Detection: If >3 decimal places in percentages without source citation
Fix: Add fake precision pattern matching with confidence 0.6+

Contradiction Tunnel Vision

Symptom: Missing self-contradictions in different sections
Detection: If numeric claims for same entity vary by >50% without flagging
Fix: Implement cross-section consistency checking with entity grouping

Citation Format Fixation

Symptom: Only detecting malformed citations, missing fabricated well-formed ones
Detection: If all citation violations are format-based, none content-based
Fix: Add domain plausibility checking and content cross-referencing

Pattern Overfitting

Symptom: High false positive rate on legitimate edge cases
Detection: If flagging rate >30% on known-good content
Fix: Adjust confidence scores and add whitelist for legitimate patterns

WORKED EXAMPLES

Example 1: Subtle False Citation Input: "According to the 2023 MIT study (https://mit.edu/research/ai-performance-2023.pdf), neural networks improve 73.847% with this technique."

Detection Process:

Extract citation: URL detected
Pattern check: "mit.edu" passes domain validation
Network verification: 404 error returned
Extract statistic: "73.847%" - suspicious precision (4 decimals)
Cross-reference: No matching statistic in legitimate sources

Findings:

fabricated_citation (confidence: 0.9) - URL returns 404
invented_statistic (confidence: 0.6) - fake precision pattern Overall risk: HIGH

Example 2: Self-Contradiction Detection Input: "The platform serves 45% of enterprise users... Later: Only 5% of users actually use the advanced features..."

Detection Process:

Extract numeric claims: "45% enterprise users", "5% users"
Entity grouping: Both reference "users" metric
Context analysis: "enterprise users" vs "users" - partial overlap possible
Ratio calculation: 45% vs 5% = 9x difference
Semantic analysis: Could be consistent (5% of total, 45% of enterprise)

Finding: No contradiction flagged (different user subsets) Action: Continue processing

Example 3: Fabricated Study Reference Input: "A recent Stanford study shows that 80% of developers prefer method A."

Detection Process:

Pattern match: "recent [institution] study" without citation
Vague reference flag: No specific study details
Cross-reference: No Stanford studies found on this topic
Statistic plausibility: 80% seems reasonable but unsourced

Finding: vague_study (confidence: 0.5) - pattern match for unsourced claims Action: WARN and request source citation

QUALITY GATES

Processing complete when ALL boxes checked:

[ ] All URLs extracted and connectivity verified (or marked unverifiable) [ ] Academic citations matched against standard formats
[ ] Numeric claims checked for logical impossibilities (negative counts, >100%) [ ] Internal consistency verified across all quantitative assertions [ ] Temporal claims validated (no future dates as historical facts) [ ] Suspicious precision patterns flagged (≥4 decimal places without source) [ ] Cross-contradictions identified within 95% confidence threshold [ ] Overall risk assessment assigned (low/medium/high/critical) [ ] All findings include location, confidence score, and evidence [ ] Report generated with actionable recommendations for each finding

NOT-FOR BOUNDARIES

This skill should NOT be used for:

General content validation → Use dag-output-validator instead
Confidence scoring or uncertainty quantification → Use dag-confidence-scorer instead
Grammar/style checking → Use appropriate language skills
Domain expertise verification → Delegate to domain-specific validators
Real-time fact checking during generation → Use post-generation verification
Legal/medical accuracy validation → Require human expert review
Opinion or subjective claim evaluation → Focus on verifiable factual assertions
Citation format correction → Flag issues but don't attempt fixes

For citation format fixes, use dag-content-editor. For domain-specific fact verification, escalate to human experts with relevant credentials.

dag-hallucination-detector

DECISION POINTS