![Answer card citation [1] linked by a cyan line to a source file inside a folder](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fblog%2Fcitations-stay-on-the-original-path.png&w=3840&q=75)
Citations Should Open the Original Path
When you ask about a will, a letter, or a photo from an estate drive, the citation has to open the file on disk — not a cloud snippet that lost the path.
TL;DR
Filecite citations stay tied to the original path. Side references open a preview. If you cannot open the source, you cannot trust the answer.
Chat products are good at fluent paragraphs. They are weaker at proving which file said what. For leftover archives — especially legal and estate material — a fluent paragraph without a path is a liability.
Path-backed answers
Filecite Ask returns citations that open the source on your machine. Scopes (This document, Search results, Entire library) change how wide the answer reaches, not whether the citation is real.
Local embeddings, local history
Semantic search uses local nomic-embed-text-v1.5 so hybrid search works offline. Chat history stays on the PC. That is the opposite of uploading a drive to a hosted Glean-style index.
Why this matters for estates
Executors and adult children need to verify claims against the actual will.pdf or letter.wpd — including converted copies that still point back to the leftover original. Citations that lose the path fail that test.