Idea Discovery

Discover, compare, and select research candidates for: $ARGUMENTS

This is the candidate-discovery layer. It must end with a selected, evidence-bounded candidate or a clear request for more direction. It must not silently generate a long method proposal, a full experiment roadmap, or a paper-ready research plan for every candidate.

Capability Routing

This is a first-layer entry skill. Resolve the debuffer repo root from .debuffer_skills/installed-skills-codex.txt (repo_root) when available, read the referenced library SKILL.md, then follow that skill. Do not duplicate library instructions here.

• /idea-creator: read ../../skills-codex-library/idea-method/idea-creator/SKILL.md.
• /reference-paper-deconstruction: read ../../skills-codex-library/idea-method/reference-paper-deconstruction/SKILL.md.
• /method-paper-gate: read ../../skills-codex-library/idea-method/method-paper-gate/SKILL.md.
• /research-lit: read ../../skills-codex-library/literature/research-lit/SKILL.md.
• /novelty-check: read ../../skills-codex-library/review/novelty-check/SKILL.md.
• /research-refine: read ../../skills-codex-library/idea-method/research-refine/SKILL.md only after a candidate is selected.
• /research-blueprint: use the entry skill ../research-blueprint/SKILL.md only after Idea Freeze.

Layer Boundary

direction / reference
  -> landscape and evidence map
  -> candidate generation
  -> mechanical consolidation
  -> novelty and adversarial review
  -> method-paper gate
  -> user selects a candidate
  -> research-refine (Idea Freeze)
  -> research-blueprint (Executable Research Plan)

Do not confuse a planning status with a research verdict. A future-work sentence, a promising gap, or ready_for_novelty_check is not a confirmed novelty claim.

Defaults

• AUTO_PROCEED = false: no response never counts as selecting an idea.
• COMPACT = true: early discovery writes compact artifacts first.
• RENDER_HTML = false: rendering is optional and never a discovery gate.
• MAX_CANDIDATES = 12.
• MAX_SELECTED = 1 unless parallel tracks are explicitly requested.
• PILOT = opt-in: prepare a pilot spec only when requested.
• OUTPUT_DIR = idea-stage/.

Phase 0: Load Context

Read, when present:

1. docs/project/RESEARCH_BRIEF.md or legacy RESEARCH_BRIEF.md.
2. PROJECT_STATUS.md and docs/project/NEXT_ACTIONS.md.
3. research-wiki/query_pack.md.
4. idea-stage/IDEA_MEMORY.md and experiments/NEGATIVE_RESULTS.md.
5. Local papers, codebase notes, or a supplied reference PDF.

This phase is the Load Research Brief step. Preserve the user's constraints separately from reference-document content. The Research Brief is context, not permission to copy claims or methods.

Phase 1: Landscape and Reference Deconstruction

If a reference paper or small paper set is supplied, run /reference-paper-deconstruction first. Preserve source locators, the actual question, conclusion boundary, reusable structure, missing evidence, and the minimum discriminating test. Then run /research-lit to test the gap against recent work.

Organize the result by problem, method family, competing explanation, failure mode, shared assumption, and unexplored regime. Do not call a gap open merely because a paper says “future work”.

Phase 2: Candidate Generation

Invoke /idea-creator with the landscape, constraints, provenance, and failure memory. The creator owns the A-E paths:

A landscape-driven
B incremental limitation repair
C justified combination
D assumption-breaking
E cross-domain transfer

Every candidate needs a precise question, hypothesis, importance, closest work, minimum discriminating test, paper type (method-primary, audit-support, or audit-only), method delta, resource estimate, failure condition, evidence status, and conclusion boundary.

Do not produce a full architecture, theorem suite, 16-week plan, or paper figure list here unless explicitly requested.

Phase 3: Mechanical Consolidation

Remove only near-duplicates and objectively impossible candidates. Preserve uncertainty as annotations. Do not eliminate a candidate merely because it is difficult or not yet verified as novel.

Phase 4: Novelty and Adversarial Review

Run /novelty-check on the strongest candidates and use /research-review or an external review package for criticism. Preserve review-tracing.md whenever an external reviewer is used. Ask for the closest work, strongest objection, discriminating result, importance under failure, and smallest repair.

Phase 4.5: Method Paper Gate

Before user selection, run /method-paper-gate on the strongest candidates. Write idea-stage/METHOD_PAPER_GATE.md with method-primary, audit-support, or audit-only for each candidate.

Only method-primary candidates may proceed to research-refine. audit-only candidates must be rewritten into a method candidate or removed from the active selection list. Audit/evaluation/diagnostic work is supporting evidence, never the dominant contribution.

Phase 5: User Checkpoint and Output

Write:

• idea-stage/IDEA_CANDIDATES.md;
• idea-stage/IDEA_REPORT.md;
• idea-stage/IDEA_MEMORY.md using the Write Ideas to Research Wiki and append-only memory conventions when the project has a research wiki.

Use this schema:

### Candidate I-01: [title]
- Question:
- Hypothesis:
- Why it matters:
- Closest work / exact difference:
- Paper type / method delta:
- Minimum discriminating test:
- Data / compute / timeline:
- Risk and kill condition:
- Evidence status:
- Conclusion boundary:
- Next action:

Stop and ask the user to select one candidate. No response is not approval.

Handoff

After selection:

1. /research-refine creates the Idea Freeze and focused method thesis.
2. /research-blueprint creates the detailed executable research plan.
3. /experiment-plan creates the operational runbook after the blueprint gate.

Durable chain:

IDEA_CANDIDATES -> FINAL_PROPOSAL -> RESEARCH_BLUEPRINT -> EXPERIMENT_PLAN