# Scholar Sidekick agent skills for Claude Code, Cursor and RevampKey

> Ready-made Scholar Sidekick playbooks for AI agents: audit a whole bibliography for fabricated and retracted citations, format and export a reference list with Scholar Sidekick, verify a single citation with Scholar Sidekick. Free SKILL.md files for Claude Code, Cursor and Codex, or one click in RevampKey.

## Skills

- [Use Scholar Sidekick with AI](https://revampkey.com/marketplace/scholar-sidekick/skills/essentials.md): Uses the Scholar Sidekick connector to resolve DOIs, PMIDs and other identifiers, format and export references, and check citations, retractions and open-access status. Every lookup is read-only.
- [Audit a whole bibliography for fabricated and retracted citations](https://revampkey.com/marketplace/scholar-sidekick/skills/citation-bibliography-audit.md): Checks every entry in a BibTeX, RIS or CSL JSON reference list against the record at its identifier and flags fabricated, mismatched, unresolved and retracted citations in one per-entry table. It reads the list and reports; it changes nothing in your file without asking.
- [Format and export a reference list with Scholar Sidekick](https://revampkey.com/marketplace/scholar-sidekick/skills/reference-list-formatting-export.md): Turns a list of DOIs, PMIDs or other identifiers into a formatted reference list in the citation style you need, then exports it to BibTeX, RIS, CSL JSON or another reference-manager format. It reports anything that failed to resolve and does not treat a formatted list as proof the citations are correct.
- [Verify a single citation with Scholar Sidekick](https://revampkey.com/marketplace/scholar-sidekick/skills/single-citation-verification.md): Checks one reference against the record at its DOI or other identifier, so you catch real identifiers attached to invented or altered titles. It also checks retraction and open-access status, and asks before changing your manuscript.

## Install

- RevampKey: connect Scholar Sidekick at https://revampkey.com/marketplace/scholar-sidekick; the skills come with it.
- Any Agent Skills tool, into the current project:

```bash
for s in essentials citation-bibliography-audit reference-list-formatting-export single-citation-verification; do
  curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .agents/skills/scholar-sidekick-$s/SKILL.md https://revampkey.com/marketplace/scholar-sidekick/skills/$s/SKILL.md
done
```

### What is a Scholar Sidekick agent skill?

A SKILL.md file: a short playbook an AI agent loads when your request matches it. Each Scholar Sidekick skill describes one job, which Scholar Sidekick tools to use in which order, what to check first and when to stop and ask you.

### Do the Scholar Sidekick skills change anything on their own?

4 of the 4 only read. The others tell the agent to show you the change and wait for a yes before it creates, edits or deletes anything in Scholar Sidekick.

### Which tools can use these skills?

Any agent that reads the open Agent Skills format: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, VS Code with Copilot and RevampKey. In RevampKey they are attached when you connect Scholar Sidekick; elsewhere you copy the folders into your project or skills directory.

### Do I need the Scholar Sidekick MCP server too?

Yes. The skills tell the agent how to do the work; the Scholar Sidekick MCP server gives it the tools to do it. The Scholar Sidekick MCP setup guide covers every client.

MCP setup guide: https://revampkey.com/marketplace/scholar-sidekick.md