> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.reducto.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Citations

> How to use bounding box citations in Reducto extraction outputs

## Overview

Reducto provides **bounding box citations** so you can trace extracted data back to its original source inside a document. This feature is especially important for **compliance, debugging, and trust** in industries that need data grounded in real evidence.

***

## Why use citations?

* **Traceability** — Confirm where each extracted value came from in the source file.
* **Compliance** — Maintain audit trails for regulated workflows.
* **Debugging** — Compare schema outputs against original text to fix errors.
* **User experience** — In Studio, click between the output field and the highlighted bounding box on the document.

***

## How-to enable citations

<CodeGroup>
  ```python Python theme={null}
  result = client.extract.run(
      document_url=upload,
  	schema=schema,
  	system_prompt=system_prompt,
  	generate_citations=True,
  )
  ```

  ```javascript javascript theme={null}
  const result = await client.extract.run({
      document_url: upload,
  	schema,
  	system_prompt,
  	generate_citations: true,
  });
  ```
</CodeGroup>

## How citations work

When `generate_citations` is enabled, Reducto includes bounding box metadata for each extracted field. Citation data (`citations`) is in a separate field than `result`, which is the data returned in your specified schema structure.

Each bounding box (`bbox`) represents the **location of text in the document** with coordinates relative to the top left corner of the page:

```json Sample response theme={null}
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "sample_extracted_field": [
        {
		// Relative to top left corner of the page
          "bbox": {
            "left": 0.1,
            "top": 0.2,
            "width": 0.3,
            "height": 0.05,
            "page": 1,
            "original_page": 1
          },
          "confidence": "high",
          "content": "granular citation",
          "image_url": null,
		// For granular citations, this is the parent block that it belongs inside of
          "parentBlock": {
            "bbox": {
              "left": 0.1,
              "top": 0.9,
              "width": 0.8,
              "height": 0.05,
              "page": 1
            },
            "block_type": "Text",
            "confidence": "high",
            "content": "This is the full sentence with the granular citation."
          },
          "type": "Text"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "result": ....
}
```

In the bounding box coordinates: `left`, `top`, `width`, `height`: pixel coordinates normalized to the page, relative to the top left corner.

* `parentBlock`: Since citations can be very granular and specific, the `parentBlock` is the Parse block containing the extracted data. It helps with providing more contextual data.

In [Studio](https://studio.reducto.ai/), citations are two-way links:

-> Click an extracted field to see its highlight in the document.

-> Click a highlighted bounding box to locate the field in the output.

## Spreadsheet citations

Excel and other spreadsheet formats handle citations differently from PDFs and images:

**Coordinate system:**

* **Excel**: Uses 0-indexed row/column positions. For example, cell A1 would have coordinates `left: 0, top: 0, width: 1, height: 1`
* **Other formats**: Use normalized coordinates in \[0,1] range relative to page dimensions

**Page field:**

* **Excel**: The `page` field is derived from the sheet name (e.g. "Sheet1" → 1, "Sheet2" → 2)
* **Other formats**: The `page` field represents the actual page number in the document

**Example Excel citation:**

```json JSON output theme={null}
{
  "bbox": {
    "left": 1,      // Column B (0-indexed)
    "top": 4,       // Row 5 (0-indexed) 
    "width": 1,     // 1 column wide
    "height": 1,    // 1 row tall
    "page": 1,      // Sheet1
    "original_page": 1
  }
}
```

This allows for precise cell-level citations in spreadsheet documents.