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acf.cite

Generates an academic citation of an ACF® resource in the requested style — APA, MLA, Chicago, ISO 690 or BibTeX. URI in, formatted citation + structured version out.

iNote
Read tool. No inference: the citation is deterministically derived from the URI and the signed doctrine snapshot. Author, year, URL — all anchored on the archived version. Use it for theses, dissertations, regulatory filings, academic papers.

When to use

Use this tool when a deliverable must reference ACF® formally: a university thesis, a compliance filing submitted to a regulator, a board memo, an academic paper. A hand-rolled citation drifts — versions, dates, attribution — and traceability breaks. The tool guarantees that every citation of a given resource points at the same frozen version.

The tool returns the formatted citation (a string ready to paste into a document) AND its structured form (author, year, title, URL) — useful when the reference manager expects discrete fields (Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, OBSIDIAN bibtex, etc.).

Input parameters

Three fields. The resource is addressed by its ACF® URI (acf://…), not by a human slug: this is what keeps the citation stable over time.

uristring (acf://…)required
URI of the resource to cite. Examples: acf://fiche/ACF-04, acf://framework/principle/P1, acf://glossary/DDAO, acf://whitepaper, acf://regulation/ai-act/9.
style"apa" | "mla" | "chicago" | "iso-690" | "bibtex"default: "apa"
Citation style. APA for social sciences, MLA for humanities, Chicago for long-form, ISO 690 for European filings, BibTeX for LaTeX.
locale"en" | "fr"default: "en"
Language of the title in the citation.

Output schema

A flat object: formatted citation + structured version + signed footer.

citationstring
The formatted citation in the requested style, ready to paste into a document.
structured{ author: string, year: string, title: string, url: string }
Discrete fields for reference managers. URL always points at the archived doctrine version.

Example call

Citing fiche ACF-04 (Agent Identity) in APA:

cite.tstypescript
import { Client } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/index.js";
import { StdioClientTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/stdio.js";

const transport = new StdioClientTransport({
  command: "npx",
  args: ["-y", "acf-mcp"],
});
const client = new Client({ name: "demo", version: "1.0" }, {});
await client.connect(transport);

const result = await client.callTool({
  name: "acf.cite",
  arguments: {
    uri: "acf://fiche/ACF-04",
    style: "apa",
    locale: "en",
  },
});

console.log(JSON.stringify(result.content, null, 2));

Response

Here is the output for the same URI rendered in APA and BibTeX (two successive calls), to show the shared structured form:

response.jsonjson
{
  "apa": {
    "citation": "Dorange, V. (2026). Agentic Commerce Framework® (ACF®) — acf://fiche/ACF-04. ACF Standard. https://acfstandard.com/doctrine/v1.0/fiche-ACF-04",
    "structured": {
      "author": "Dorange, V.",
      "year": "2026",
      "title": "Agentic Commerce Framework® (ACF®) — acf://fiche/ACF-04",
      "url": "https://acfstandard.com/doctrine/v1.0/fiche-ACF-04"
    }
  },
  "bibtex": {
    "citation": "@misc{acf-fiche-ACF-04,\n  author = {Dorange, V.},\n  title = {Agentic Commerce Framework® (ACF®) — acf://fiche/ACF-04},\n  year = {2026},\n  url = {https://acfstandard.com/doctrine/v1.0/fiche-ACF-04}\n}",
    "structured": {
      "author": "Dorange, V.",
      "year": "2026",
      "title": "Agentic Commerce Framework® (ACF®) — acf://fiche/ACF-04",
      "url": "https://acfstandard.com/doctrine/v1.0/fiche-ACF-04"
    }
  },
  "doctrine_version": "ACF framework v1.0 / rules 2026-06",
  "doctrine_hash": "sha256:bf0b6d8e4731ebdc58f6d6338702c5b74af47874cf0ad3dc958cde5c5b30b9dc",
  "doctrine_signature": "ed25519:…",
  "doctrine_archive_url": "https://acfstandard.io/doctrine/v1.0/archive.json",
  "generated_at": "2026-06-14T11:47:22.318Z",
  "disclaimer": "Citation is generated from the URI and the frozen doctrine snapshot. Verify the URL resolves before publishing."
}

Common errors

  • InvalidUriScheme — the URI does not start with acf://. The tool only accepts native ACF® URIs, not https:// URLs.
  • InvalidEnumValue — style out of list (“harvard”, “vancouver”…). Use one of the five canonical values: apa, mla, chicago, iso-690, bibtex.
  • DoctrineSnapshotMismatch — the requested doctrine_hash is not loaded. Update acf-mcp or point at the archived version.