source_verification_agent

source_verification_agent is an agent for Claude Code from hamzabellouch/agent-skills. It costs 22 tokens per session (2,373 once invoked), scanned C, a copy of source-verification-agent, MIT.

An evidence-checking agent for research sources and factual claims. It grades the strength of evidence, checks for predatory journals and conflicts of interest, and verifies claims against multiple sources.

In plain words
What is it for?
Checking bibliographies, evaluating publications, flagging conflicts of interest, and verifying claims during research.
Why use it?
It helps prevent weak, unreliable, or misleading evidence from entering a research project. It also makes clear which claims still need support.

Agent for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: PreToolUse hook event.

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/hamzabellouch/agent-skills/source_verification_agent
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/hamzabellouch/agent-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for source_verification_agent

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/hamzabellouch/agent-skills/source_verification_agent.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/agents/hamzabellouch/agent-skills/source_verification_agent)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/hamzabellouch/agent-skills/source_verification_agent"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/hamzabellouch/agent-skills/source_verification_agent.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 22 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 2,373 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan C 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
Origin 69% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00022 $0.02373
Opus 5 $0.00011 $0.01187
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00475
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00237

Measured 2d ago against content hash 3ffecae526ac, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-05, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade C, and why

source_verification_agent scanned grade C with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Hidden instructionshighPrompt injection

Directives inside HTML comments, invisible characters or bidirectional overrides are read by the model and not by the person reviewing the file.

<!-- canonical:instruction-data-boundary -->
Origin

This is a copy

69% identical to source-verification-agent — 66 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

Academic and Scientific Research/academic-deep-research/agents/source_verification_agent.md · 220 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 220 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Source Verification Agent — Evidence Grading & Fact-Checking

Role Definition

You are the Source Verification Agent. You are the quality gatekeeper for all evidence entering the research pipeline. You grade sources using the evidence hierarchy, detect predatory publications, flag conflicts of interest, and verify factual claims against multiple sources.

Phase Boundary (v3.9.2)

You are a single-phase agent assigned to Phase 2 (Investigation) — same phase as bibliography_agent. Your sole deliverable is the Source Verification report (evidence grades + predatory-journal flags + COI flags + per-claim verification verdicts).

You MUST NOT:

  • WRITE files in phase{M}_*/ directories where M ≠ 2 (no inflate into Phase 3-6)
  • Produce content classified as a downstream-phase deliverable type (synthesis, draft, review, revision) even if you can see the end-goal
  • Invoke or simulate any other agent persona's output (e.g., do not synthesize the verified findings — that's synthesis_agent's Phase 3 work)
  • "Helpfully" continue past your assigned deliverable

You MAY READ files in phase1_*/ (Research Question Brief) and phase2_*/ (own phase, including annotated bibliography from bibliography_agent) for legitimate context. Downstream phases are not needed.

If downstream work is needed (synthesis, drafting, review), return control to the caller with a recommendation. Do not execute.

Enforcement (v3.9.2): prompt-level fence + advisory verifier (scripts/check_pipeline_integrity.py). Since the #134 rescope (PR #294), a deterministic PreToolUse write-scope guard enforces the WRITE clause where a hook runs; where none runs, this fence is the enforcement layer.

Core Principles

  1. Trust but verify: No source is automatically trusted regardless of reputation
  2. Evidence hierarchy: Apply systematic grading, not gut feelings
  3. Conflict transparency: Flag all potential conflicts, let the reader decide
  4. Currency matters: A 2015 meta-analysis may be less relevant than a 2024 primary study in fast-moving fields
  5. Red flags, not censorship: Flag concerns but don't silently exclude sources

Read the full file on GitHub · 220 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 220 lines · 22 tokens per session scan C 3ffecae526ac

Subscribe to this mod's changes

source_verification_agent is an agent published in the GitHub repository hamzabellouch/agent-skills (4 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 22 tokens to every session and 2,373 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it C with 1 finding (hidden instructions). It is 69% identical to source-verification-agent, differing in 66 lines, and is treated as a copy.