Citations

A citation traces something Stoa wrote back to the exact passage in a source document where the claim came from. Citations are how you check Stoa's work, and they're the difference between an answer you can use in a memo and an answer you can't.

This page is about how to read them, how to verify them, and what to do when one looks wrong.

Why citations matter

When you ask Stoa a question grounded in your knowledge bases, the answer is built from real passages in real documents. Citations make that traceable. You don't have to trust the model, you can read the source yourself.

That means:

• You can defend an answer in a meeting or an audit.
• You can catch a mistake before it ends up in your work.
• You can find the original document fast when you need more than the snippet.

A cited answer is an answer you can use.

How to read a citation

An answer that drew on your documents shows a small Sources button underneath it, with a count: "3 Sources," for example. Click it and a panel opens listing every passage the answer used, in order:

• The source document's name.
• Where in the document it came from. For a PDF, that's a page number. For a document that was converted on the way in, such as a Word file, a PowerPoint deck, a spreadsheet, or a web page, it's a more specific location: a slide number, a sheet name, or the section the passage sits under, shown as a short path like "Staff handbook > Leave > Sick leave." Reading that path tells you exactly which part of the document you're looking at, not just which chapter.
• A short excerpt of the original passage.

Citations are plain text, not links: there's nothing to click through to the original file from inside the panel. To read the source in full, verify a citation against the document, or check for a more recent version, open the knowledge base it came from.

Verifying a citation

Don't take a citation at face value. The whole point is that you can check it.

A quick verification habit:

1. Open Sources under the answer.
2. Read the excerpt to confirm it says what the answer claims.
3. Open the document from its knowledge base if the excerpt is ambiguous or you need more context than the snippet gives you.
4. Cross-check against another source if the claim is high-stakes (compliance, clinical, legal).

Most citations check out. When one doesn't, that's important information.

When a citation looks wrong

A citation can be wrong in a few ways:

• The document exists but doesn't say what the answer claims. The model made a leap from the passage that isn't actually supported.
• The location is off. The text is in the document but on a different page, slide, sheet, or section than the citation names.
• The source isn't authoritative for the claim. The passage is cited but it's not the right document to lean on.
• The citation is stale. The source has been updated and the excerpt is from an older version.

When you spot any of these, do two things. First, downvote the response with the thumbs-down button (see feedback). Second, if it's blocking your work, tell your administrator directly. Bad citations are fixable with prompt and knowledge base tuning, and your admins watch the feedback log.

What answers don't get citations

Not every answer has citations, and that's expected.

• General knowledge questions (definitions, common-sense math, well-known facts) don't get citations because there's no specific source document being used.
• Pure drafting tasks ("rephrase this paragraph to be more formal") don't need citations.
• Tool-result answers that came from a live system query show the tool's own input and output instead of a document citation.

If you're asking a question where you expect a documented source (a policy interpretation, a clinical claim, a regulatory reference) and you don't see a Sources button, that's a flag. Ask Stoa explicitly: "What's your source for this?" or "Can you cite that from the policy knowledge base?"

Asking for more or different citations

You can push back in plain language:

• "Cite that more specifically."
• "Where does that come from?"
• "Show me a different source for the same claim."
• "Are there any sources in our compliance knowledge base that contradict this?"

Stoa will rerun its retrieval with the new instruction and rebuild the answer with the citations you asked for.

Where to next

• Chats for how citations show up in conversation.
• Knowledge bases for what citations point back to.
• Feedback for reporting bad citations.
• Deep research for citation-heavy long-form work.