AgentCite

Fabrication-free, DOI-backed citations for AI content & agents. Every result is a real openAlex record (CC0 public-domain data) with a resolvable DOI — the API never fabricates a source. Built to stop the hallucinated-citation problem that gets content E-E-A-T-demoted.

Separate deployable from giftedpicks.com (own Vercel project). Productizes the logic of GiftedPicks/scripts/citation_magnet.py.

API (MVP)

• GET /api/cite?topic=<q>&n=5&since=YYYY → { topic, count, works[], markdown, source }

  • each work: { title, authors[], first_author, year, doi, doi_url, cited_by_count, venue, openalex_id }

• GET /api/health → { status, openalex, ts }

Data: openAlex REST (relevance-ranked, peer-reviewed type:article). Set OPENALEX_MAILTO env to join openAlex's polite pool. Edge-cached 1h per topic.

Related MCP server: Crossref Academic MCP Server

Roadmap (build order)

1. ✅ Core /cite + /health (openAlex REST, no key, no binary — serverless-portable)

2. ⏳ API-key + quota gate (Supabase: anon free tier rate-limited vs keyed Pro)

3. ⏳ MCP server: get_citations(topic, n, since) (stdio + http) — the agent-native surface

4. ⏳ Stripe billing (TEST mode first; hosted Checkout/Payment Link → webhook provisions quota). GATED: needs .claude/secrets/stripe-test-{publishable,secret}-key saved by Kevin. LIVE go-live = Kevin places the live secret key in the deploy env; agents never hold it.

5. Landing page + MCP-registry listings — owned by Cowork.

Guardrails

Public-domain data only (zero scraping / no unofficial-site APIs). Honesty is the product: output always says "verify each DOI resolves." Test-mode payments only until Kevin flips live; agents never move money or hold the live key.

Billing (Stripe)

Pro tier via hosted Stripe Checkout (subscription). On checkout.session.completed, the signature-verified webhook (/api/stripe-webhook) provisions a Pro API key in Redis (free→Pro quota elevation). Configure via env:

• STRIPE_SECRET_KEY, STRIPE_PRICE_ID, STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET, REDIS_URL

• Create the Pro product/price once: STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_… node scripts/setup-stripe-product.js

• Without Stripe env set, /api/checkout returns 503 and the citation API still runs free-tier.