Agent Skills: Bluebook Footnote Audit Workflow

Bluebook Footnote Audit Workflow

Systematic Bluebook 21st edition compliance audit for law review manuscripts in DOCX format.

Announce: "Using bluebook-audit to run a systematic Bluebook compliance check."

Overview

Seven-phase linear workflow: Extract -> Check -> Report -> Correct -> Verify -> Archive -> Cross-Refs

/bluebook-audit  -> extract -> check -> report -> [USER REVIEWS] -> correct -> verify -> archive -> crossrefs
/bluebook-audit-fix -> diagnose -> route to {re-check, re-correct, re-verify}

Phase Summary

| Phase | Responsibility | Gate | |-------|---------------|------| | Extract | Parse DOCX -> structured JSON with formatting | footnotes_data.json exists, all FNs extracted | | Check | Mechanical checks → Gemini Batch per-footnote → Claude cross-footnote review | audit_findings.json exists, ALL FNs covered, three-layer merge complete | | Report | Present findings to user for review | AUDIT_REPORT.md exists, user acknowledges | | Correct | Apply fixes to DOCX via lxml | Corrected DOCX exists, fix counts match | | Verify | Re-scan to confirm fixes applied | Zero remaining issues in re-scan | | Archive | perma.cc URL archiving | All URLs archived, links written to DOCX | | Cross-Refs | Convert supra/infra notes to NOTEREF fields | All cross-refs are auto-updating fields |

How to Start

1. User provides a DOCX file path
2. Workflow creates scratch/ directory for intermediate artifacts
3. Proceeds through phases sequentially

Next Step

Read the entry command:

Read("commands/bluebook-audit.md")  # relative to this skill's base directory

Every footnote in the document must be audited. No subsets. No sampling.

Auditing only "major-severity" footnotes or a random sample guarantees missed errors. The formatted Gemini audit must cover ALL footnotes, not just previously flagged ones.

Skipping footnotes is NOT HELPFUL — missed errors go to publication and embarrass the user. </EXTREMELY-IMPORTANT>

NEVER send plain text to Gemini for typeface auditing. Always include formatting markup.

Plain text produces 10-20x false positives because Gemini cannot see what is already italic/small caps/roman. Inline markup (*italic*, [SC]small caps[/SC]) reduces false positives from ~400 to ~20 for a 239-footnote document. </EXTREMELY-IMPORTANT>

After applying corrections, ALWAYS re-run the scanner to verify fixes were applied.

NBSP characters, run boundaries, and cross-run text cause silent failures. A fix that "applied" in code may not have actually changed the DOCX. Re-scanning is mandatory. </EXTREMELY-IMPORTANT>

Never drop a mechanical finding because Gemini didn't flag it.

Deterministic checks (signal italic, terminal periods, Id. chains) are 100% reliable. Gemini misses ~30% of signal formatting issues because it focuses on citation-level analysis and lacks a dedicated signal-checking output field. During merge/dedup, mechanical findings are authoritative for their rule categories. Gemini adds value only for judgment calls (source type classification, abbreviation tables).

Previous failure: Gemini reported FN103 as having only typeface issues on article titles, completely missing that "See also" was not italicized — which the mechanical checker caught. </EXTREMELY-IMPORTANT>

Gemini consistently misclassifies non-standard source types. Never auto-fix Gemini's typeface suggestions for SEC releases, executive orders, working papers, or regulatory materials.

The hardest part of a Bluebook audit is determining the correct typeface for non-standard sources. Gemini defaults to "everything should be italic or small caps" but many source types are correctly roman:

• SEC releases/rules/concept releases → roman (regulatory material, Rule 14.6)
• Executive order titles → roman (Rule 14.7)
• Working paper series designations → roman (parenthetical)
• Company names in no-action letters → roman

The audit report MUST separate "verified fixes" (clear violations) from "judgment calls" (source type dependent) and include a "correct as-is" section documenting why Gemini's suggestions were rejected. See references/audit-patterns.md for the full source type reference table.

Previous failure: Gemini flagged 10+ items as needing italic/small caps that were actually correct as roman (SEC releases, exec orders, working paper designations). Without the source type reference table, these would have been incorrectly "fixed." </EXTREMELY-IMPORTANT>

| Excuse | Reality | Do Instead | |---|---|---| | "Gemini already checked this phase" | Gemini hallucinates citation formats; its output requires human verification | Run the mechanical checker independently and merge results | | "Sampling footnotes is good enough" | One wrong supra reference invalidates the reader's trust in ALL footnotes | Audit every footnote — no subsets, no sampling | | "Re-scanning is redundant overhead" | Fixes in one phase create new errors in dependent phases | Re-run the scanner after every correction pass | | "The document is short, I can eyeball it" | Eyeballing misses systematic errors that pattern-matching catches | Run all phases regardless of document length | | "This footnote format is close enough" | Bluebook compliance is binary — close is wrong | Fix it to spec or flag it for human review | </EXTREMELY-IMPORTANT>

• "Skipping a phase because the document 'looks clean'" → STOP. Every phase catches different error types.
• "Trusting Gemini's output without spot-checking" → STOP. Gemini fabricates citation details.
• "Applying fixes without re-running the affected phase" → STOP. Fixes cascade.
• "Marking a footnote as correct without checking the reporter/volume" → STOP. Surface-level review misses citation errors.
• "Rushing the final verification because earlier phases were clean" → STOP. Earlier phases being clean doesn't guarantee the fixes didn't introduce new errors. </EXTREMELY-IMPORTANT>

If you sent plain text to Gemini instead of formatted text with footnote markers, DELETE the results and START OVER with properly formatted input. Gemini cannot audit what it cannot parse. </EXTREMELY-IMPORTANT>

Why Skipping Hurts the Thing You Care About Most

| Shortcut | Consequence | |---|---| | Skipping a phase because footnotes "looked fine" | You skipped the signal-word phase because footnotes "looked fine." Wrong supra references persist — your efficiency corrupted the document. | | Not verifying fixes after applying them | You applied formatting fixes without re-checking. The fixes introduced new errors — your speed was destructive. |