# Research workflow

A deeper procedure for source gathering, synthesis, audience laddering, and graph placement.

## Source gathering

- Start from what the user gave you; list the claims, examples, and open questions before searching.
- Prefer primary and current sources (papers, standards, docs, official data) for anything technical, legal, financial, or time-sensitive. Browse when current facts matter.
- For each source, capture *why it matters* to this article — not just that it exists. A citation with no reason is noise.
- Do not fabricate references, quotes, or numbers. If you cannot verify a claim, mark it as unverified in the draft.

## Find the unique insight

- Write the one distinction this article makes that existing explainers do not. That is the information gain.
- Good insight is a *useful* distinction tied to an action: a reframe, a non-obvious tradeoff, a sharper category.
- If you cannot find one, the honest output is "no clear information gain yet" plus a proposed sharper angle — not filler.

## Audience laddering

- Beginner explainer: simple vocabulary, a strong analogy, an immediate action.
- Tactical article: copyable steps, checklists, examples, a concrete payoff.
- Advanced article: a deeper thesis and sharper framing, still plain and useful.
- Flagship piece: original synthesis across research, practice, and first principles.
- For a multi-article plan, map each piece to a different awareness level; do not cram every insight into the first.

## Graph placement

- Name the primary entity the article is about.
- List related entities a reader should connect it to, and propose internal links with a reason for each.
- Note candidate external citations and the role the article plays relative to neighboring pieces.