Wilson removes the advantage afforded to those who will lie.
Wilson is an open-source AI reasoning auditor. It verifies legal citations against primary sources and reconstructs the reasoning chain behind AI-generated outputs with enough granularity to hold them accountable.
Where existing tools check whether a citation exists and return a verdict, Wilson follows the citation into the source and audits whether it actually supports the proposition it is cited for -- returning a documented evidence chain, not just a score.
An auditor you cannot audit is just another black box. Wilson is open because auditability requires transparency.
AI systems generate confident, plausible-sounding outputs through intentionally closed processes. 729+ documented cases of AI-fabricated citations have reached US courtrooms since 2023 -- accelerating. Every existing solution is proprietary and opaque.
Wilson is the accountability layer those systems cannot provide for themselves.
Accountability should be democratized. Wilson is free because a proprietary accountability tool has a conflict of interest baked into it.
v0.0.5 -- Published. Full three-phase pipeline with web interface and Windows installer.
v0.1.0 -- In development. Document upload portal, batch processing, pipeline improvements, settings panel.
Verified against Mata v. Avianca (1:22-cv-01461, S.D.N.Y.) -- the most sanctioned AI hallucination case in US legal history. Wilson correctly identified all six citations in the original filing: three fabricated, two misattributed to wrong cases at valid coordinates, one legitimate. 6/6 accuracy. Zero false positives.
- Extracts legal citations using eyecite (Free Law Project)
- Verifies existence against 18 million federal case records -- fast offline lookup
- Catches misattributed citations where coordinates belong to a different case
- Name-based fallback when only a case name is provided
- Verdicts: FABRICATED | MISATTRIBUTED | EXISTS
- Fetches full opinion text from CourtListener
- Checks whether quoted language appears verbatim or approximately in the opinion
- Flags false quotes and paraphrasing presented as direct quotation
- Verdicts: 100% MATCH | XX% MATCH | NOT FOUND
- Sends full opinion text to a local LLM via Ollama (nothing leaves your machine)
- Asks whether the cited case actually supports the proposition it is cited for
- Falls back to CourtListener semantic search when Ollama is unavailable
- Verdicts: SUPPORTS | DOES_NOT_SUPPORT | UNCERTAIN | SKIPPED
Download Wilson-Setup-0.0.5.exe from the releases page.
- No admin required -- installs to your user folder
- No Python installation needed -- bundled runtime included
- Self-contained -- everything lives in the Wilson folder
- First launch collects credentials and optionally downloads bulk citation data
- Double-click
Wilson.batto start -- browser opens automatically
Requirements: Windows 10/11 x64. Free CourtListener API token. Ollama optional for Phase 3.
git clone https://github.com/CYoung83/wilson.git
cd wilson
chmod +x setup.sh
./setup.shRequirements: Python 3.12+. Free CourtListener API token. Ollama optional for Phase 3.
git clone https://github.com/CYoung83/wilson.git
cd wilson
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and add your CourtListener API token
uvicorn api:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000Edit .env:
# Required
COURTLISTENER_TOKEN=your_token_here # Free at courtlistener.com/sign-in
# Optional -- fast offline verification (~1.9GB)
CITATIONS_CSV=/path/to/citations-2026-03-31.csv
# Optional -- Phase 3 coherence checking
OLLAMA_HOST=http://localhost:11434
OLLAMA_MODEL=qwen3.5:35b
OLLAMA_CONTEXT_SIZE=245760wget "https://com-courtlistener-storage.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/bulk-data/citations-2026-03-31.csv.bz2"
bunzip2 citations-2026-03-31.csv.bz2Navigate to http://localhost:8000 and enter any legal citation. Wilson runs all three phases and streams results in real time.
Navigate to http://localhost:8000/upload to upload a PDF, DOCX, or TXT document. Wilson extracts all legal citations, lets you review and edit proposed propositions, then runs the full verification pipeline in batch.
Click the gear icon in any Wilson page to access settings: theme (dark/light/high contrast/auto), font size, layout density, Ollama configuration, CourtListener token management, and CSV status.
Wilson respects CourtListener's privacy removal system. When an opinion has been flagged for privacy protection, Wilson skips Phase 2 and Phase 3 and notes this in the results.
Input (citation text, case name, or uploaded document)
|
Citation Extraction (eyecite -- Free Law Project)
|
+------------------------------------------+
| PHASE 1: Existence Verification |
| - CourtListener API citation lookup |
| - Local bulk CSV (18M records) |
| - Case name fuzzy match (75% min) |
| - Privacy flag check (blocked field) |
| -> FABRICATED / MISATTRIBUTED / EXISTS |
+------------------------------------------+
| (if EXISTS and not blocked)
+------------------------------------------+
| PHASE 2: Quote Verification |
| - Fetch full opinion text |
| - Exact + fuzzy string match |
| -> 100% MATCH / XX% MATCH / NOT FOUND |
+------------------------------------------+
| (if proposition provided)
+------------------------------------------+
| PHASE 3: Coherence Checking |
| Primary: Ollama local LLM |
| Fallback: CourtListener semantic search |
| -> SUPPORTS / DOES_NOT_SUPPORT / |
| UNCERTAIN / SKIPPED |
+------------------------------------------+
|
Full Reasoning Trace
| Source | Purpose | License |
|---|---|---|
| CourtListener | Case lookup, full opinion text | CC BY-ND |
| Free Law Project Bulk Data | Local citation database (18M records) | CC BY-ND |
| eyecite | Citation extraction | BSD |
| Charlotin Hallucination Database | Primary test dataset | Research use |
Wilson uses CourtListener data in accordance with their privacy policy. Wilson does not republish case content -- it performs private forensic analysis and returns verdicts.
- Three-phase citation verification pipeline
- Real-time streaming web interface
- 18M record offline bulk CSV support
- Windows self-contained installer with first-launch wizard
- Mata v. Avianca proof of concept -- 6/6 verified
- Document upload portal -- PDF, DOCX, TXT batch verification
- CourtListener semantic search as Phase 3 fallback
- Privacy compliance -- blocked flag detection
- Name confidence threshold with "did you mean?" suggestions
- CSV update notifications
- Settings panel -- theme, font size, Ollama config, token management
- Branding -- favicon, about modal
- GitHub Actions release workflow with build provenance attestation
- HTML report generation
- PACER integration
- Docker deployment
- Full SPA with client-side routing
Wilson is open source because auditability requires transparency. Contributions are welcome.
Design specifications for every feature live in docs/superpowers/specs/. Read the spec before submitting a PR -- it explains the reasoning behind decisions, not just what was built.
Open an issue before submitting a pull request.
Named for the volleyball in Cast Away -- something real built under duress because survival required it. A thinking partner that keeps you sane when the system breaks down around you.
Wilson is developed by National Standard Consulting LLC, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business.
Apache 2.0 -- see LICENSE for details.
Wilson does not make decisions. It makes decisions auditable.