Hallucination guardrails need citation systems to show where information comes from. Good citation helps users trust AI by letting them check facts themselves. When designing citation features, it's important to balance being thorough with being user-friendly. Too many references overwhelm users, while too few leave them questioning reliability. Designers must decide the following:

• When citations are needed, usually for specific facts, quotes, or claims.
• What format to use, for example, formal citations or simple links
• How to display them: inline, footnotes, or expandable notes

The best citation systems also give context about how reliable and recent the sources are. For AI systems, it's especially important to clearly show the difference between information from verified sources and content the AI has generated on its own. This helps users know which parts they can fully trust and which might need verification.