Problem
The citation validator produces warnings for standard markdown footnote references like [^S-001], [^S-002], etc. when the footnote definition points to a file in a different directory than the current file.
Example Warnings
WARNINGS (9)
├─ Line 23: [^S-001]
│ └─ Found via file cache in different directory: /path/to/poc-entity-resolve.ts
├─ Line 45: [^S-003]
│ └─ Found via file cache in different directory: /path/to/person-lookup.py
├─ Line 66: [^S-004]
│ └─ Found via file cache in different directory: /path/to/dot-mismatch-classify.py
├─ Line 27: [^S-002]
│ └─ Found via file cache in different directory: /path/to/persons-poc.json
Footnote Definition Format
Standard markdown footnote definitions in the file:
[^S-001]: openspec/changes/.../poc-entity-resolve.ts
[^S-002]: data-output/persons-poc.json (pipeline output)
[^S-003]: data-output/poc-scripts/person-lookup.py
Expected Behavior
Footnote references ([^S-NNN]) that resolve to valid footnote definitions within the same file should not produce warnings, regardless of what directory the footnote definition text points to. The footnote definition text is a source citation (human-readable), not a link to validate.
Actual Behavior
The validator treats the footnote definition text as a file path and warns when the referenced file is in a different directory.
Root Cause
The validator appears to be incorrectly parsing footnote definitions as file citations when they are simply human-readable source references that document where data came from.
Problem
The citation validator produces warnings for standard markdown footnote references like
[^S-001],[^S-002], etc. when the footnote definition points to a file in a different directory than the current file.Example Warnings
Footnote Definition Format
Standard markdown footnote definitions in the file:
Expected Behavior
Footnote references (
[^S-NNN]) that resolve to valid footnote definitions within the same file should not produce warnings, regardless of what directory the footnote definition text points to. The footnote definition text is a source citation (human-readable), not a link to validate.Actual Behavior
The validator treats the footnote definition text as a file path and warns when the referenced file is in a different directory.
Root Cause
The validator appears to be incorrectly parsing footnote definitions as file citations when they are simply human-readable source references that document where data came from.