source-research - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: source-research description: Search and cite primary sources from Source Library. Use when asked what historical authors wrote, to find quotes from old texts, investigate alchemical or philosophical works, or cite translated Latin/German sources.

Source Research

Search the Source Library collection of translated historical texts and retrieve quotes with citations.

When to Use

"What did Drebbel write about..."
"Find quotes about quintessence"
"What do historical sources say about..."
"Cite primary sources for..."

CRITICAL: Verbatim Quoting

When presenting text in quotation marks:

The quoted text MUST appear verbatim in the get_quote or get_book_text response
NEVER reconstruct quotes from memory — even if you "know" the text from training data
If you can't find the exact passage, say so — don't approximate
Copy-paste from the tool response, then trim with ellipses (…) if needed
If the Source Library translation differs from other known translations (e.g., Woodcroft 1851 for Hero's Pneumatica), use the Source Library version — that's the point of citing it

Section References

Use the section headings from Source Library's translation, not from other editions. If the Source Library translation says "The construction of a mechanism so that when a fire is lit, the doors open automatically", cite that — don't substitute "Theorem 37" from a different edition.

API Endpoints

Search

curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/search?q=QUERY"

Options: language=Latin, has_doi=true, limit=10

Get Quote (single page — use before quoting)

curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/books/hero-pneumatica-1693/quote?page=68"

Returns translation, original text, and citation for ONE page. ALWAYS use this tool before putting text in quotation marks — copy the exact text from the response.

Get Book Text (multi-page reading)

curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/books/BOOK_ID/text?from=1&to=50"

Returns up to 50 pages. Use for reading/analysis. When quoting from this response, copy text verbatim.

Get Book

curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/books/BOOK_ID"

Workflow

Search for the topic
Note book IDs and page numbers from results
Use get_quote for each page you want to quote — copy text verbatim
Present findings with inline citations using the exact text from the response

Example

# Search
curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/search?q=quintessence&limit=5"

# Get quote for citing (always use slug, not hex ID)
curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/books/drebbel-1628/quote?page=57"

Citing

Use the citation.inline from the response:

"The Fifth Essence, red like a ruby, is immutable." (Drebbel 1628, p. 57)