Corpus Sweep

Governing Axiom

This skill enacts the Endogenous-First axiom from MANIFESTO.md and is governed by AGENTS.md § Programmatic-First Principle. Before sweeping any corpus, check whether a prior sweep result is already cached in .cache/sources/ or recorded in the active session scratchpad — re-sweeping a cached corpus wastes tokens and violates Local Compute-First.

"Scaffold from existing system knowledge and external best practices." — MANIFESTO.md § 1 Endogenous-First

When to Use

• A synthesis or implementation phase requires patterns found across ≥20 source documents.
• The Orchestrator needs a cross-cutting summary before delegating to a Synthesizer.
• A research epic requires an initial landscape report before forming hypotheses.
• You are auditing agent files, research docs, or session scratchpads for a recurring pattern.

Do not use this skill for:

• Single-document reads (use read_file directly).
• Live web fetches (use the source-caching skill instead).
• Tasks where the required context fits within a single grep_search or semantic_search call.

Workflow

1. Pre-warm cache — before reading any source file, run:

   uv run python scripts/fetch_all_sources.py

   Skip if .cache/sources/manifest.json was updated within the current session.
2. Read source index — identify the target corpus:
   • For research sources: read .cache/sources/manifest.json to list all cached URLs.
   • For internal docs: list docs/research/, docs/guides/, or .github/agents/ as appropriate.
   • Record the total document count before batching.
3. Batch-read docs — divide the corpus into batches of 5–10 files. For each batch:
   • Use read_file (for long docs) or grep_search (for keyword scanning).
   • Record findings per document: filename, key claim, relevant quote (≤50 words), and cross-references noted.
   • Stop scanning a document once sufficient signal is found — avoid reading full content when a heading scan suffices.
4. Record findings — append findings to the active session scratchpad under ## Corpus Sweep Output:

   ## Corpus Sweep Output
   - <filename>: <key claim> — "<quote>"

   Write incrementally after each batch; do not accumulate all findings in memory before writing.
5. Compress and return — after all batches complete, produce a ≤2000-token compressed summary and return it to the Orchestrator. Follow the compression rules in AGENTS.md § Focus-on-Descent / Compression-on-Ascent.

Output Format

Return only the compressed summary — no preamble, no prose framing. Use this structure:

Corpus: <name> — <N> docs scanned
Keywords: <keyword list>

Findings:
- <doc-name>: <one-line finding>
- …

Patterns:
- <cross-cutting pattern 1>
- <cross-cutting pattern 2>

Gaps:
- <topic with no coverage>

Token count: ~<estimate>

Maximum return: ≤2000 tokens. If findings exceed this, compress by:

1. Dropping per-document lines with no cross-cutting signal.
2. Merging duplicate findings into a single pattern entry.
3. Omitting gaps that are not actionable for the current phase.

If compression is truly unavoidable, note [truncated — N docs omitted] at the end.

Example Invocation

@corpus-sweep Sweep docs/research/ for "values encoding" patterns across all synthesis docs.
Return: compressed summary, ≤2000 tokens, bullets only.

Expected output shape:

Corpus: docs/research/ — 23 docs scanned
Keywords: values encoding, encoding fidelity, signal loss

Findings:
- values-encoding.md: cross-reference density proxy for encoding fidelity
- agent-taxonomy.md: POSTURE-mapped toolsets reduce drift at T3 static layer
- bubble-substrate-model.md: membrane permeability spec governs Scout→Synthesizer handoff

Patterns:
- Encoding loss is highest at session-prompt layer (T4)
- Cross-reference density (back-links per 1000 words) is the primary fidelity metric

Gaps:
- No synthesis covering T4 runtime governor effectiveness data

Token count: ~320