In production, final reports frequently contain claims without proper source attribution.

Option C preserves provenance as part of the data contract instead of attempting to reconstruct it after synthesis. Each finding should carry a stable claim identifier and one or more source records containing the URL or document identifier, relevant location, supporting excerpt, retrieval date, and applicable qualification. The synthesis agent can combine or rewrite claims while retaining their source relationships.

Anthropic’s structured-output documentation supports schema-constrained, parseable results for downstream workflows. Its citation documentation explains that reliable citations depend on valid pointers to provided source material. Anthropic’s skill guidance similarly recommends cross-referencing each major claim and verifying its citation before completion.

Option A reconstructs attribution probabilistically and may associate a claim with a similar but incorrect passage. Option B encodes metadata inside prose, making transformations and parsing fragile. Option D retains excessive context and adds another model stage to recover information that should never have been discarded. Structured claim-source mappings permit deterministic merging, citation validation, deduplication, and audit trails. The report generator can therefore cite the exact evidence supporting each conclusion without replaying complete research transcripts.

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