manage-refs

# Manage-Refs Skill > **Canonical source (issue #16).** This SKILL.md is the single canonical > reference for the reference-*workflow* (validate keys → render CSL → convert > markers → QC cross-references → inject Zotero CWYW). Audit-only bib > verification is owned by `skills/verify-refs/SKILL.md`. Any user-scope rule or > external note about reference handling should point here (workflow) or to > verify-refs (audit) rather than restating the "how", to prevent drift. You are routing reference-handling work for a medical manuscript. The user is somewhere in the lifecycle — drafting, building a circulation DOCX, swapping CSL after a journal rejection, fixing a cross-reference defect surfaced by QC, or wiring up live Zotero field codes for a co-author Word workflow. Pick the right tool from the decision table; do not invent a parallel pipeline. ## Why This Skill Exists Reference handling spans every late-stage skill: `/write-paper` builds the first DOCX, `/revise` rebuilds it after each reviewer round, `/peer-review` emits a critique that quotes references back, `/sync-submission` packages the final tarball, `/find-journal` informs CSL swaps on rejection cascade, and `/verify-refs` audits the bibliography. Until 2026-05-01 these scripts lived under `skills/write-paper/scripts/`, which made `/revise` and `/sync-submission` silently depend on a sibling skill — a layering inversion that broke when `/write-paper` was loaded into a non-research project. Moving the lifecycle tool...