Citation and Attribution

[smallxinpilot]

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1. Is this request related to a challenge you're experiencing? Tell me about your story.

Hello. I want to add the reference and attribution function when searching the knowledge base in the workflow, but it doesn't seem to work. I found that it works when using a simple chat assistant. Have you ever considered how to embed the chat assistant as a node in the workflow? Or can you tell me how to make the reference and attribution function work in the workflow?

2. Additional context or comments

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3. Can you help us with this feature?

• I am interested in contributing to this feature.

[dosubot[bot]]

Hi @smallxinpilot! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the dify team.

Citation and attribution (reference) for knowledge base search works in the chat assistant because it uses the retriever_resource.enabled config, which triggers citation collection and display in responses. In workflows, the underlying metadata for citations is present in the outputs of nodes like KnowledgeRetrieval and LLM, but there’s currently no user-facing toggle or UI to show these references directly in the workflow interface. So, even though the data is there, you can’t enable or view citations in workflows unless you manually extract and present this metadata from the node outputs yourself—for example, by customizing downstream nodes or your app’s UI to display the citation info from the workflow output structure.

Embedding the chat assistant as a node in a workflow isn’t supported; workflows and chat assistants are separate constructs, though workflow nodes can replicate some of the chat logic.

This is a known gap: the feature exists in code but isn’t surfaced in the workflow UI or configuration yet. If you want to explore or customize this, you can look at how citation metadata is handled in the workflow node outputs (see the RetrievalSourceMetadata class and related workflow node code for details)
example: citation metadata in workflow nodes.

If you need step-by-step guidance on extracting and displaying this metadata in your workflow, let me know!

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[smallxinpilot]

I need step-by-step guidance on extracting and displaying this metadata in my workflow. Have you considered fixing this?

[smallxinpilot]

Please tell me the specific modification steps. I also have a question about whether the robot avatar in the dialog box can be replaced. I have tried to modify it when creating a workflow, but this operation only takes effect on the open interface, not the robot avatar in the dialog box. So can it be replaced through the front-end method or by modifying the embed.min.js code?

[dosubot[bot]]

Here’s how you can achieve both goals:

1. Extracting and displaying citation/attribution metadata in workflows

• The KnowledgeRetrieval node in your workflow outputs a result array, where each item contains a metadata dictionary with fields like dataset_id, document_id, document_name, score, and more. This metadata is suitable for citation/attribution and is available in the workflow node outputs. You can access this via the workflow API or by inspecting the outputs in the workflow run details.
• To display citations, extract the metadata from the result field of the KnowledgeRetrieval node’s outputs. If you pass this result as context to an LLM node, it will be structured using the RetrievalSourceMetadata class, which includes all relevant citation fields (position, dataset_id, document_id, document_name, etc.)
• In your custom UI or downstream node, read the result/context output and render the citation info as needed. No backend changes are required—just parse and display the metadata from the workflow node outputs.
  See code details | RetrievalSourceMetadata fields

2. Replacing the robot avatar in the dialog box

• The robot avatar in the dialog box is rendered by the frontend React components, not by embed.min.js or the embedding script. Changing the avatar in the workflow creation UI only affects the open interface, not the embedded chat dialog.
• The avatar is controlled by the AppIcon or LogoEmbeddedChatAvatar component, which uses either the app/site icon_url (if set) or a default image asset (logo-embedded-chat-avatar.png).
• To change the robot avatar:
  • If your deployment supports it, set a custom icon_url in your app/site configuration. This will update the avatar for the embedded chat.
  • For full control, replace the logo-embedded-chat-avatar.png file in the frontend codebase with your own image, then rebuild/redeploy the frontend.
  • Modifying embed.min.js or the embedding script will not affect the avatar inside the iframe, since the iframe loads its own React app and assets.
    See avatar rendering code | LogoEmbeddedChatAvatar

If you need code snippets or more detailed steps for either process, let me know your exact use case (e.g., custom UI, workflow API integration, or frontend build).

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[smallxinpilot]

But this kind of citation is in the form of text. What I want is a citation and attribution method that can be clicked to jump to the knowledge base.

[dosubot[bot]]

You can make citations in workflow outputs clickable by extracting the dataset_id and document_id from the KnowledgeRetrieval node’s output and constructing links in your UI using the pattern /datasets/[dataset_id]/documents/[document_id]. For example, if you have a result with dataset_id: "abc123" and document_id: "def456", the link would be /datasets/abc123/documents/def456—this will open the document detail page in the Dify dashboard for admin/collaborator users [source].

To implement this, parse the workflow node output in your frontend or custom UI, and render each citation as an anchor tag or clickable element pointing to the constructed URL. Here’s a simple example in React:

<a href={`/datasets/${dataset_id}/documents/${document_id}`} target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">
  {document_name}
</a>

There’s no built-in toggle for clickable citations in workflow UIs, so this requires custom UI work. Note: these links are only accessible to users with dashboard access; there’s no public document URL by default [source].

If you want to make these links available to public or external users, you’d need to extend both backend and frontend to support public document access. Let me know if you need more detailed code or integration examples!

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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