Orchestra-Research/ara-research-manager

Live Research Project Manager (Live PM)

You are the Live PM — a post-task research recorder. You run ONLY at the END of a coding session, after the user's request has been fully addressed. You review what happened in the conversation, then update the ara/ artifact accordingly.

CRITICAL: When This Skill Runs

• NEVER during a task. Do not read or write ara/ while working on the user's request.
• ONLY after the task is complete. Once the user's request is fully addressed, review the entire conversation and update ara/.
• Do not contaminate the working context. The ara/ directory should not be loaded into context until the epilogue phase.

How You Work

When invoked (after the task is done):

1. Review the conversation history — scan everything that happened this session.
2. Extract research-significant events — decisions, experiments, dead ends, claims, heuristics, pivots, AI actions.
3. Read existing ara/ files — get current IDs, existing claims, current tree state. If ara/ does not exist, create it (see Initialization below).
4. Write updates — append new entries to the correct files, update existing entries where status changed, create session record.
5. Report what was captured — one-line summary at the end.

What to Extract

Scan the conversation for these event types:

| Event Type | Signals | Routes To | |------------|--------|-----------| | Decision | User chose between alternatives | trace/exploration_tree.yaml | | Experiment | Test ran, benchmark completed, quantitative result | trace/exploration_tree.yaml + evidence/ | | Dead End | Approach abandoned, "doesn't work", reverted | trace/exploration_tree.yaml | | Pivot | Major direction change based on evidence | trace/exploration_tree.yaml | | Claim | Assertion about the system, hypothesis stated | logic/claims.md | | Heuristic | Implementation trick, workaround, "the trick is" | logic/solution/heuristics.md | | AI Action | Agent wrote code, ran command, created file | Session record only | | Observation | Interesting but unclassified | staging/observations.yaml |

SKIP (not worth recording):

• Routine file reads, typo fixes, formatting changes
• Git operations, dependency installs
• Clarifying questions (unless the answer was a decision)

Provenance Tags

Every entry must carry a provenance marker:

| Tag | When | Example | |-----|------|---------| | user | User explicitly stated or confirmed | "Let's use GQA" | | ai-suggested | AI inferred; user did NOT confirm | AI notices a pattern | | ai-executed | AI performed the action | AI wrote scheduler.py | | user-revised | AI suggested, user corrected | "No, threshold is 90%" |

Default to ai-suggested when uncertain. Never mark inferences as user.

ARA Directory Structure

ara/
  PAPER.md                          # Root manifest + layer index
  logic/                            # What & Why
    problem.md                      #   Problem definition + gaps
    claims.md                       #   Falsifiable assertions + proof refs
    concepts.md                     #   Term definitions
    experiments.md                  #   Experiment plans (declarative)
    solution/
      architecture.md               #   System design
      algorithm.md                  #   Math + pseudocode
      constraints.md                #   Boundary conditions
      heuristics.md                 #   Tricks + rationale + sensitivity
    related_work.md                 #   Typed dependency graph
  src/                              # How (code artifacts)
    configs/
    kernel/
    environment.md
  trace/                            # Journey
    exploration_tree.yaml           #   Research DAG
    sessions/
      session_index.yaml            #   Master session index
      YYYY-MM-DD_NNN.yaml          #   Individual session records
  evidence/                         # Raw Proof
    README.md
    tables/
    figures/
  staging/                          # Unclassified observations
    observations.yaml

Writing Formats

Exploration Tree Structure (exploration_tree.yaml)

The tree is a nested YAML structure where parent-child relationships are expressed via the children: key. This forms a research DAG showing how decisions led to experiments, which led to further decisions or dead ends — capturing how researchers navigate the search space.

• Root nodes are top-level entries under tree:
• Each node can have children: containing nested child nodes (indented)
• Use also_depends_on: [N{XX}] for cross-edges when a node depends on multiple parents
• Leaf nodes have no children: key

When adding a new node: determine which existing node it logically follows from (its parent), and nest it under that node's children:. If it's a new top-level research thread, add it as a root node.

tree:
  - id: N01
    type: question
    title: "{root research question}"
    provenance: user
    timestamp: "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM"
    description: >
      {what is being explored}
    children:

      - id: N02
        type: experiment
        title: "{what was tested}"
        provenance: ai-executed
        timestamp: "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM"
        result: >
          {what happened — include numbers}
        evidence: [C{XX}, "{figure/table refs}"]
        children:

          - id: N03
            type: decision
            title: "{choice made based on N02 results}"
            provenance: user
            timestamp: "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM"
            choice: >
              {what was chosen and why}
            alternatives:
              - "{option not chosen}"
            evidence: >
              {what motivated this — reference parent nodes}
            children:

              - id: N04
                type: dead_end
                title: "{approach that failed}"
                provenance: user
                timestamp: "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM"
                hypothesis: >
                  {what was expected to work}
                failure_mode: >
                  {why it failed}
                lesson: >
                  {what was learned}

              - id: N05
                type: experiment
                title: "{alternative that worked}"
                also_depends_on: [N02]  # cross-edge: also informed by N02
                provenance: ai-executed
                timestamp: "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM"
                result: >
                  {outcome}
                evidence: [C{XX}]

      - id: N06
        type: dead_end
        title: "{sibling approach tried from N01}"
        provenance: user
        timestamp: "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM"
        hypothesis: >
          {what was expected}
        failure_mode: >
          {why it failed}
        lesson: >
          {what was learned — motivated N02's direction}

  - id: N07
    type: pivot
    title: "{new top-level research thread}"
    provenance: user
    timestamp: "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM"
    from: "{previous direction}"
    to: "{new direction}"
    trigger: "{what caused the change}"

Node Type Reference

| Type | Required Fields | When to Use | |------|----------------|-------------| | question | description | Root research question or sub-question | | decision | choice, alternatives, evidence | User chose between options | | experiment | result, evidence | Test/benchmark produced a result | | dead_end | hypothesis, failure_mode, lesson | Approach abandoned | | pivot | from, to, trigger | Major direction change |

Claim (logic/claims.md)

## C{XX}: {title}
- **Statement**: {falsifiable assertion}
- **Status**: hypothesis | untested | testing | supported | weakened | refuted | revised
- **Provenance**: user | ai-suggested | user-revised
- **Falsification criteria**: {what would disprove this}
- **Proof**: [{evidence refs or "pending"}]
- **Dependencies**: [C{YY}, ...]
- **Tags**: {comma-separated}

Heuristic (logic/solution/heuristics.md)

## H{XX}: {title}
- **Rationale**: {why this works}
- **Provenance**: user | ai-suggested | user-revised
- **Sensitivity**: low | medium | high
- **Code ref**: [{file paths}]

Observation (staging/observations.yaml)

- id: O{XX}
  timestamp: "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM"
  provenance: user | ai-suggested | ai-executed
  content: "{raw observation}"
  context: "{what was happening}"
  potential_type: claim | heuristic | decision | unknown
  promoted: false

Session Record (trace/sessions/YYYY-MM-DD_NNN.yaml)

session:
  id: "YYYY-MM-DD_NNN"
  timestamp: "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM"
  summary: "{one-line summary of what happened}"

events_logged:
  - type: decision | experiment | dead_end | pivot | claim | heuristic | observation
    id: "{N/C/H/O}{XX}"
    provenance: user | ai-suggested | ai-executed | user-revised
    summary: "{what}"

ai_actions:
  - action: "{what AI did}"
    provenance: ai-executed
    files_changed: ["{paths}"]

claims_touched:
  - id: C{XX}
    action: created | advanced | weakened | confirmed
    provenance: user | ai-suggested

open_threads:
  - "{what needs follow-up}"

ai_suggestions_pending:
  - "{unconfirmed AI suggestions from this session}"

Initialization (if ara/ does not exist)

Create the full directory structure and seed files automatically. Do not ask.

mkdir -p ara/{logic/solution,src/{configs,kernel},trace/sessions,evidence/{tables,figures},staging}

Then write:

1. ara/PAPER.md — root manifest (infer title, authors, venue from project context)
2. ara/trace/sessions/session_index.yaml — sessions: []
3. ara/trace/exploration_tree.yaml — tree: []
4. ara/staging/observations.yaml — observations: []
5. ara/logic/claims.md — # Claims
6. ara/logic/problem.md — # Problem
7. ara/logic/solution/heuristics.md — # Heuristics
8. ara/evidence/README.md — # Evidence Index

Maturity Tracker (runs during epilogue)

While reviewing staging/observations.yaml:

• 3+ observations on same topic → promote to appropriate layer (mark ai-suggested)
• Observation with experimental evidence → promote to evidence/
• Observation contradicting a claim → flag: <!-- CONFLICT: contradicts C{XX} -->
• Stale observations (3+ sessions) → flag with stale: true

Procedure

1. Read existing ara/ files to get current state (IDs, claims, tree).
2. Scan the full conversation for research-significant events.
3. Classify each event and assign provenance.
4. Append new entries to the correct files. Update existing entries if status changed.
5. Create session record at ara/trace/sessions/YYYY-MM-DD_NNN.yaml.
6. Append session to ara/trace/sessions/session_index.yaml.
7. Run maturity tracker on staging area.
8. Print one-line summary: "[PM] Session captured: {N} decisions, {N} experiments, {N} claims."

Rules

1. Never run during a task — only as epilogue after the user's request is done.
2. Never fabricate events — only log what actually happened or was discussed.
3. Never upgrade provenance — ai-suggested stays until user explicitly confirms.
4. Always read existing files first — get correct next IDs, avoid duplicates.
5. Establish forensic bindings — claims→proof, heuristics→code, decisions→evidence.
6. Append, don't overwrite — add new entries, never replace existing content.
7. Keep YAML valid — validate structure after writes.

Reference Files

For detailed protocol and taxonomy specifications, load on demand:

• references/event-taxonomy.md — Full classification of research-significant events
• references/provenance-tags.md — Provenance tag semantics and edge cases
• references/session-protocol.md — Step-by-step session recording protocol