Citations & sources

When Skeleton Key generates a research report, strategy, or brand profile, it ties every factual claim to a source. Citations appear as cyan-colored underlined text directly in the output body, and a References section at the end of the output lists them all.

The three citation types

Citations look the same visually, but clicking one does different things depending on where the source lives.

• Brand document — points to a file you uploaded to the brand (PDF, Word, Excel, Markdown, CSV, or similar). Clicking downloads the original file. The link text is the document's filename, and the References section labels it "Brand Document".

• Skeleton Key output — points to an upstream Skeleton Key output that informed this one. This covers prior research runs (cited by strategy and media-plan outputs) and the Brand Profile (cited when an output draws on positioning, audience, values, or similar brand facts). Clicking opens the source page. The References section labels these "Skeleton Key".

• External web — a link to a public source on the web. Clicking opens the page in a new browser tab. The References section shows the publication name or domain.

Where citations appear

Citations show up in two places in every output.

Inline in the body text: a phrase or sentence that draws from a source is underlined in cyan. You can click it without scrolling anywhere.

In the References section at the bottom: every source appears there. Even if you can't click an inline link (see below), the References entry still identifies the original source.

Why every output is cited

Every claim in a Skeleton Key output is traceable. If a strategy says the audience over-indexes on a particular behavior, you can click back to the research run or brand document that supports it. If a brand profile describes a positioning territory, the citation shows you which uploaded document it came from. Skeleton Key cites sources so you can audit any claim, share outputs with stakeholders who want to verify the reasoning, or go deeper into any evidence the output drew on.

When a citation can't open

Not every citation click will succeed.

A citation to a research run only opens if the source run is still accessible to you. If that run was deleted, or if you were removed from the brand, the citation renders as plain non-clickable text. The References entry still identifies the source, so you know where Skeleton Key drew from, but you cannot navigate to the run itself.

A Brand Document citation triggers a file download. If the file was removed or you no longer have access, the download fails and you see an error notification. The References entry still identifies the document by name.

In both cases, the output text does not change. The citation failure affects navigation only, not the content of the analysis.