Citations
When Cumulus uses your internal data to answer a question — from a SharePoint document, an uploaded file, or a connected integration — it shows exactly where that information came from. Citations appear as Cards that you can open and explore without disrupting the conversation.
How citations work
Every time the AI references internal data — a document, a file section, a record from an integration — it surfaces a Citation Card below the response. Each card shows:
- Source name — the document or file the information came from
- Specific section — the exact section or passage referenced, not just the file name
- Confidence — how closely the cited content matches your question
Citation Cards
Citation Cards live below the AI’s response. They’re compact by default — click to expand and read the full source excerpt.
Probing deeper
Each Citation Card lets you ask follow-up questions scoped to that source. Click Ask about this source within the card to start a focused conversation about that specific document — without interrupting your main chat thread.
Use citation cards to verify the AI’s answer before acting on it. If the cited section doesn’t support the response, that’s useful signal — you can ask the AI to reconsider.
When you’ll see citations
Citations appear when the AI draws from:
| Source | Example |
|---|---|
| SharePoint documents | Your company’s policies, procedures, templates |
| Uploaded files | PDFs, Word docs, spreadsheets you’ve attached to a message |
| Workspace context | Documents assigned to a Workspace |
| Connected integrations | Any data source connected to your org |
General AI knowledge (not from your internal data) does not produce citations — those responses draw from the model’s training. Citations only appear when internal data was specifically used.
Carried sources
When you fork a chat from an existing research thread, the source citations from the original conversation carry forward into the new session. The AI can continue referencing the same documents you were already working with — you don’t need to re-upload files or re-establish context.
This is useful when a conversation has surfaced a useful set of sources and you want to explore a related angle in a fresh thread without losing that grounding. The forked chat starts with full awareness of all previously cited documents.
Carried sources are inherited at fork time. New documents added after forking are available only in the session where they were uploaded.
Why this matters
- Verify accuracy — you can check the source and confirm the AI got it right
- Navigate faster — citations link directly to the relevant section, not just the file
- Build trust — your team knows exactly where the AI’s answers come from
- Stay in context — Citation Cards keep your investigation inside the chat without cluttering the main thread
Related
- Cards & Artifacts — AI-generated documents and lists
- Conversations — forking chats and managing sessions
- File Uploads — attach files that generate citations
- SharePoint Integration — connect your document library
- Workspaces — shared project context with team citations