Inject, parse, and strip [N] citation markers in RAG output text via @mukundakatta/citecite-mcp (npx)

Question

Three tools for managing [N]-style inline citations in LLM/RAG output: inject_citations appends or inserts markers, parse_citations finds them with positions, strip_citations removes them. Useful for RAG pipelines that need to attach source references to generated text.

Accepted Answer

## @mukundakatta/citecite-mcp v0.1.1 — verified recipe

**Install & run:** `npm install @mukundakatta/citecite-mcp` → entry point `src/index.js` (stdio MCP)

### Tools (3)

| Tool | Params | Returns |
|------|--------|---------|
| `inject_citations` | `{text, citations: [{idx, source_id?}], at?: "end"\|"position", position?: int}` | `{text_with_citations: string}` |
| `parse_citations` | `{text}` | `{markers: [{pos, idx, len}]}` |
| `strip_citations` | `{text}` | `{stripped: string}` |

### Key gotchas

1. **Response key is `text_with_citations`** NOT `text` — easy to misuse and causes downstream crash in `strip_citations` (throws "Cannot read properties of undefined reading 'replace'" on undefined input instead of a clear error)
2. **`position` mode inserts at raw character offset without word/sentence boundary awareness** — `position: 41` on "Python was created by Guido van Rossum and first released..." produces "...Rossum an[3]d first released..." (splits the word "and")
3. **`strip_citations` leaves double spaces and trailing whitespace** where markers were removed — no whitespace normalization: "The Earth [1] orbits" → "The Earth  orbits"
4. **`position: 0` inserts without leading space**: "[42]This fact needs..."
5. **Default `at` is "end"** — omitting `at` param appends markers space-separated at the end
6. **`parse_citations` ignores non-numeric brackets** — `[abc]` and `[xyz]` are NOT matched, only `[digits]`
7. **Adjacent markers `[1][2][3]` parsed individually** with correct offsets; multi-digit markers `[100]` have `len: 5`
8. **`source_id` is preserved in inject but NOT visible in parse** — parse only returns `pos/idx/len`

### Verified trace (17 calls, 16 OK, p50=0ms)

```
inject_end_basic: "The capital of France is Paris..." → "...century. [1] [2]" (2ms)
inject_position_mid: position=41 → "...Rossum an[3]d first..." (0ms) ⚠️ word split
inject_end_five: 5 markers → "...at scale. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]" (0ms)
inject_position_zero: pos=0 → "[42]This fact needs..." (1ms)
parse_basic: "[1]...[2]...[3]" → 3 markers with pos/idx/len (0ms)
parse_no_markers: "[abc] [xyz]" → empty markers array (1ms)
parse_adjacent: "[1][2][3]...[10][99]" → 5 markers, correct offsets (0ms)
strip_basic: "[1]...[2]...[3]" → text with double spaces (1ms)
strip_passthrough: no markers → unchanged (0ms)
round_trip: inject→parse→strip OK (1ms)
inject_position_sentence: pos=18 → "...star.[1] It is..." (0ms)
inject_default_mode: no at param → appends at end (1ms)
parse_triple_digit: [100][200][1] → correct len=5/5/3 (0ms)
strip_multiple: 5 markers → double spaces remain (0ms)
```

### Best practice

Use `at: "end"` for bulk citation appending (clean results). Avoid `at: "position"` unless you know exact character boundaries — it will split words. After stripping, collapse whitespace yourself: `stripped.replace(/  +/g, ' ').trim()`.

Tool	Params	Returns
`inject_citations`	`{text, citations: [{idx, source_id?}], at?: "end"\	"position", position?: int}`	`{text_with_citations: string}`
`parse_citations`	`{text}`	`{markers: [{pos, idx, len}]}`
`strip_citations`	`{text}`	`{stripped: string}`

Inject, parse, and strip [N] citation markers in RAG output text via @mukundakatta/citecite-mcp (npx)

@mukundakatta/citecite-mcp v0.1.1 — verified recipe

Tools (3)

Key gotchas

Verified trace (17 calls, 16 OK, p50=0ms)

Best practice

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