paper-navigator

name	paper-navigator
description	Find and read academic papers (S2 + arXiv). Disambiguate ambiguous queries, search by keyword + citation graph + recommendations + snippets, judge by author-graded rubric, and read with L1/L2/L3 strategy. Trigger phrases: find papers, search papers, related work, citation analysis, recent advances, read this paper, baseline with code. Do NOT use for: survey reports (research-survey), idea generation (research-ideation), Related Work sections (paper-writing).
allowed-tools	write_file edit_file read_file think_tool execute
metadata	{"author":"EvoScientist","version":"3.1.0","tags":["core","research","literature","papers","search","rubric"]}

Paper Navigator

Find and read academic papers. Route by intent, judge by author-graded rubric.

        User
         │
         ▼
   ┌── Router ──┐
   │            │
   ▼            ▼
 POINT      LIST/ITERATIVE
(1 paper)   (rubric + 2–3 rounds)

The agent does relevance judgment — no LLM-as-judge is called. You author the rubric, you triage each paper, you sort.

Setup

Scripts at skills/paper-navigator/scripts/. Run via python skills/paper-navigator/scripts/<name>.py.

Env var	Used by	Notes
S2_API_KEY	All S2 scripts	Without it: scholar_search falls back to arXiv; citation_traverse / recommend / snippet_search are disabled
JINA_API_KEY	fetch_paper	Free tier works without key
GITHUB_TOKEN	github_search, find_code	Higher rate limits
PAPER_NAV_PAPERS_DIR	fetch_paper full text	No default — set or pass --metadata-only

Full env-var list: references/env-vars.md.

---

Five Red Lines (always)

1. Track history. Don't re-run a query you already ran. Empty result → change angle, not synonyms.
2. Search a gap, not a vibe. Every query maps to one missing piece of information. No stacked-keyword bags.
3. One query = one concept. Split comparisons (A vs B), multi-property asks, and multi-year spans into separate calls.
4. Never hallucinate. Every fact (title, author, year, citation count, content) comes from a tool result.
5. Quote-or-zero. When you claim a paper meets a criterion, quote a ≤80-char span from its abstract / tldr / snippet. No quote → that criterion scores 0.

---

Router

Branch	User signal	Cadence	Output
POINT	Title quoted, URL, arXiv/DOI/PMID/S2 ID, "read this paper"	1 call	Paper Card
LIST (default)	"find papers about X", "is there a paper that …?", "papers satisfying A and B"	2 rounds + optional patch	Shortlist with per-criterion evidence
ITERATIVE	"survey of X", "30+ papers on Y", called from research-survey / research-ideation	up to 3 rounds, breadth-first	Ranked table (hand off to research-survey for the report)

Default to LIST when unsure. Don't add survey / review to LIST queries — it down-ranks the canonical originals the user wants.

Ambiguous query (project nickname, codename, single capitalized word with zero hits) → run scholar_search exact + web/GitHub search first to resolve identifiers, then re-route.

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POINT branch (known paper)

Input	Command	Output
URL	python scripts/fetch_paper.py --url <URL>	Paper Card + reading notes (see references/reading-strategy.md for L1/L2/L3)
Title quoted	python scripts/match_paper_by_title.py --title "<title>" (add --fallback-search for typos)	Paper Card
Bare ID (arXiv / DOI / S2 / CorpusId)	python scripts/fetch_paper.py --paper-id <ID> --metadata-only	Paper Card

Paper Card:

📄 **<Title>**
Authors: <First Author> et al. | Year: <Y> | Venue: <V>
Citations: <N> | ID: <ArXiv:xxxx.xxxxx> | DOI: <...>
TLDR: <one sentence>

Stop here. Do not chain to citation expansion unless asked.

---

LIST / ITERATIVE branch — 6 steps

Step 1: Parse intent

State in one sentence: the research object (specific technique / concept) and the constraints (domain, task, recency, exclusions). Confirm the router branch.

Step 2: Author the RUBRIC (via think_tool)

Emit a structured block before any search. It persists across rounds and every later step references it.

RUBRIC for "<user query verbatim>"
Branch: LIST | ITERATIVE
Criteria (2–4, atomic, weights sum to ≈1.0):
  C1 [w=0.45] <what the paper MUST do/be — one sentence>
  C2 [w=0.35] <...>
  C3 [w=0.20] <...>
Named entities to preserve verbatim: [<ent1>, <ent2>, ...]
Angle tags (3–5 sub-topic axes): [<tag1>, <tag2>, <tag3>]
Disqualifiers: [<auto-reject if abstract shows this>]

Rules:

• Criteria atomic (one condition each), weighted, non-redundant.
• Named entities = proper-noun / technical-term anchors from the user's query. Every entity appears verbatim in ≥1 query across Rounds 1+2.
• Angle tags = sub-topic axes (method, task, dataset, evaluation, domain, …). No two queries in the same round share a tag.
• Disqualifiers = "specifically X, not Y" exclusions. Tripping a disqualifier scores 0 on the related criterion.

For ITERATIVE, criteria can be lighter (e.g. covers topic + is survey / canonical); disqualifiers may be empty.

Step 3: Search — Probe-then-Refine

Do not author all queries upfront. Round 1 surfaces named entities Round 2 needs.

Round 1 — Probe (2 parallel queries):

• Q-broad — canonical phrasing of the topic (angle: general)
• Q-narrow — a specific mechanism / sub-question / method (angle: tagged)

python scripts/scholar_search.py --query "<Q-broad>"  --limit 15 --sort-by relevance --output /tmp/pool.jsonl --append
python scripts/scholar_search.py --query "<Q-narrow>" --limit 15 --sort-by relevance --output /tmp/pool.jsonl --append

--output --append auto-dedupes by paperId across rounds (built into the script), so a paper found by two queries is written once. Read /tmp/pool.jsonl to inspect (Step 4 triage).

From Round 1 titles + tldrs, lift:

• recurring named entities (algorithm / benchmark / dataset / model names),
• angle gaps (Step-2 tags not seen),
• vocabulary from adjacent communities.

Round 2 — Refine (2–3 parallel queries):

Tier	Count	Shape
Method / mechanism	1–2	Sub-mechanism on an uncovered angle tag
Named-entity	1	Entity verbatim from Round 1 titles + a modifier. Drop this tier if Round 1 surfaced no entities.

python scripts/scholar_search.py --query "<refine 1: method, angle X>" --limit 15 --output /tmp/pool.jsonl --append
python scripts/scholar_search.py --query "<refine 2: method, angle Y>" --limit 15 --output /tmp/pool.jsonl --append
python scripts/scholar_search.py --query "<refine 3: lifted entity>"   --limit 15 --output /tmp/pool.jsonl --append

Round 3 — Patch (only if Step 5 gate says CONTINUE). One targeted query on the remaining gap.

Per-query rules:

• 4–7 words typical (up to 9 OK); <3 over-recalls, >9 dilutes ranking.
• English only.
• Bare entity names, no paper / original / pdf.
• Forbidden: "…", (..), OR, AND, |, site:, filetype:.
• No two queries in one round may share >60% of content tokens (after stop-words).

Without S2_API_KEY: swap scholar_search for arxiv_monitor --keywords "<variant>" --match-mode flexible --days 3650.

Citation expansion (ITERATIVE, or LIST after ≥3 strong seeds):

python scripts/citation_traverse.py --paper-id <SEED> --direction co-citation --limit 15 --output /tmp/pool.jsonl --append
python scripts/citation_traverse.py --paper-id <SEED> --direction forward --limit 20 --min-citations 20 --year-min 2022 --output /tmp/pool.jsonl --append
python scripts/recommend.py --positive <SEED1>,<SEED2> --limit 15 --output /tmp/pool.jsonl --append

Step 4: Triage — PERFECT / GOOD / WEAK / IRREL

After every round, classify each new paper. Emit a think_tool block:

TRIAGE round=<n>  query="<q>"
  PERFECT (k): <paperId> "<title-≤60>" Y=<year> · [C1✓ C2✓ C3✓]
                evidence C1: "<≤80-char quote>"
                evidence C2: "<≤80-char quote>"
                evidence C3: "<≤80-char quote>"
  GOOD    (k): <paperId> "<title>" Y=<year> · [C1✓ C2~ C3✗]
                evidence C1: "<quote>"
  WEAK    (k): <paperId> "<title>" Y=<year> · [C1~ C2✗ C3✗]
  IRREL   (k): <paperId> "<title>"

Tier	Required mask	Quotes
PERFECT	every high-weight criterion ✓, no ✗ anywhere	one ≤80-char quote per criterion
GOOD	every high-weight (w ≥ 0.3) at least ~, no ✗ on any high-weight	one quote per ✓ criterion
WEAK	one high-weight ✗ or only low-weight hits	none
IRREL	misses every high-weight or trips a disqualifier	none — drop from later rounds

✓ = abstract/tldr clearly supports. ~ = partial/inferable. ✗ = no support or contradicts.

Rules:

1. Dedup across rounds by paperId first, then normalised title. Keep the stronger mask.
2. Disqualifier check beats all other matches → IRREL.
3. Re-diagnose gaps: list any criterion with 0 PERFECT candidates → that's the next refine target.
4. No fabrication: missing abstract → mark ~, do not infer from training data.

Snippet upgrade for borderline papers (abstract silent on a criterion): batch-fetch real body text:

python scripts/snippet_search.py --query "<criterion phrase>" \
  --paper-ids "CorpusId:1,CorpusId:2,..." --limit 50

Step 5: Saturation Gate

Read the across-round pool from Step 4, apply the table, take the action — no other input.

LIST branch after Round 1:

Pool	Action
≥1 PERFECT	STOP → Step 6
0 PERFECT, ≥2 GOOD	CONTINUE → Round 2 (lift entities from Round 1)
0 PERFECT, <2 GOOD	CONTINUE → Round 2, plus ≥1 query on a new angle (rubric may be off)

LIST branch after Round 2:

Pool	Action
≥1 new PERFECT, all high-weight criteria covered	STOP → Step 6
≥1 new PERFECT, but a high-weight criterion still has 0 PERFECT	CONTINUE → Round 3 patch
0 new PERFECT+GOOD and Round 1 had 0 PERFECT	STOP and re-decompose — criteria are wrong. Report best Secondary candidate(s) + ask user to relax a criterion.
Empty recall on every Round 2 query	STOP — topic not in corpus or entities are wrong

ITERATIVE branch: keep searching while any angle tag has 0 PERFECT+GOOD or any key claim has only one source. Stop when every angle tag has ≥2 PERFECT+GOOD.

Round caps: LIST 2+1, ITERATIVE 3, POINT 1. If still not saturated at the cap, go to Step 6 and report which criteria / angle tags were not covered.

The gate is mechanical — do not skip rounds because "the results look right".

Step 6: Rerank and Output

Gather: every PERFECT and GOOD from across all rounds (dedup by paperId, keep stronger mask). Add WEAK only if PERFECT+GOOD < 3 (fallback fill). Drop IRREL.

Score each criterion 0 / 0.25 / 0.5 / 0.75 / 1.0:

Score	Meaning
1.0	quote directly satisfies the criterion
0.75	strong implication (one inference from quote)
0.5	partial — topic match, not the specific condition
0.25	adjacent — same field, off-criterion
0	no quoted evidence, contradicts, or trips a disqualifier

Compute weighted_total = Σ (criterion_score × criterion_weight) ∈ [0, 1]. Sort DESC by weighted_total, tie-break by citationCount DESC → year DESC.

Tier the output:

Tier	weighted_total	Use
Primary	≥ 0.7	The answer. Eligible for top-K.
Secondary	0.5 – 0.7	"May also be relevant"; never promoted to Primary.
Drop	< 0.5	Exclude.

Rank-1 quality bar. For single-recommendation queries ("is there a paper that …?", "recommend a paper", "what's the canonical X") the bolded top-1 must have weighted_total ≥ 0.85 AND every high-weight criterion (w ≥ 0.3) must score ≥ 0.75. Rank 1 carries disproportionate weight in user perception and in downstream evaluation; promoting a 0.71 Primary to top-1 reads as a confident wrong answer. If no candidate clears the bar, lead with "No fully-matching paper found" and present the strongest near-miss honestly with its per-criterion gaps.

If Primary is empty after the round cap, report "no fully-matching paper found", list strongest Secondary candidates + their per-criterion gaps, stop.

K to return:

Question shape	K
"Exactly N papers"	N (pad with Secondary only if Primary < N)
"Is there a paper that …?" / "Recommend a paper"	1–2 (bold top-1)
"Find papers about …"	3–5
"Survey of …" / ITERATIVE	up to 10 + 1–2 surveys

Output formats:

LIST (shortlist with evidence):

**Primary answer (weighted_total = 0.92):**
- **<paperId>** "<Title>" — <Authors> et al., <Year>, <Venue>. <URL>
  - C1 (0.45): "<quote>" → 1.0
  - C2 (0.35): "<quote>" → 1.0
  - C3 (0.20): "<quote>" → 0.5

**May also be relevant:**
- <paperId> "<Title>" — total 0.62; missed C2 (no evidence in abstract).

ITERATIVE (ranked table):

| # | Title | Authors | Year | Venue | Link | Score |
|---|-------|---------|------|-------|------|-------|
| 1 | …    | … et al. | 2024 | NeurIPS | <URL> | 0.88 |

POINT: Paper Card (above).

Pre-output checklist (mandatory). Before emitting the answer, verify each box. The dominant failure mode of this skill is skipping the rerank and emitting the last round's top-K verbatim — this checklist exists to make that impossible.

• Pool gathered from every Step-5 triage block across all rounds, deduped by paperId (keep the stronger mask), IRREL excluded.
• weighted_total computed for every Primary and Secondary candidate — the actual Σ (criterion_score × criterion_weight), not estimated, not eyeballed.
• Sorted DESC by weighted_total → citationCount → year.
• Rank-1 clears the bar (≥ 0.85 total AND every high-weight criterion ≥ 0.75) for single-recommendation queries — or you've reported "No fully-matching paper found" instead of fronting a weak candidate.
• Every Primary paper has ≥1 evidence quote per high-weight criterion (quote-or-zero rule, Red Line 5).

If any box is unchecked, return to Step 6 — do not output.

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Tool Cheat Sheet

Need	Script	Notes
Keyword search	scholar_search.py	S2 → arXiv fallback on missing key / 429
Title → record	match_paper_by_title.py	S2 exact-match; --fallback-search for typos
Citation graph	citation_traverse.py	--direction forward/backward/co-citation; --min-citations; --year-min/max; --smart-sort; --enrich
Similar papers	recommend.py	seed-based; --per-seed for diverse seeds
Author papers	author_search.py	--sort-by year/citations
New arXiv	arxiv_monitor.py	--categories cs.CL or --keywords "x,y" --match-mode flexible
Trending	trending.py	citation velocity
Body-text snippets	snippet_search.py	--paper-ids c1,c2,c3 --limit 50 (1 call, not N)
Fetch full text	fetch_paper.py	Saves to $PAPER_NAV_PAPERS_DIR/<id>.md; stdout truncated to 2000 chars
Code repo (known paper)	find_code.py --arxiv-id <ID>	Official repo lookup
Code repo (unpublished)	github_search.py	When no arXiv ID exists
HF leaderboard / SOTA	sota.py	sorted by downloads
HF datasets	dataset_search.py	Query short-name (imdb, sst2), not task description
Saturation gate (optional)	saturation.py	JSONL log of per-round yields; estimate returns STOP/CONTINUE

All discovery scripts: --limit N, --json, --output FILE, --append; accept S2 / arXiv / DOI / CorpusId IDs. --output --append auto-dedupes by paperId across rounds (within-batch + cross-file), so the pool stays clean.

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Rate limits

API	Without key	With key
Semantic Scholar	~1 req / 3s, no parallel	100 req/min, parallel OK
arXiv	1 req / 3s (courtesy)	N/A
GitHub	10 req/min	5,000 req/hr
HuggingFace	500 req / 300s	Higher with HF_TOKEN

Global S2 pacer + circuit breaker (5 failures → 60s cooldown). Retries: 3s / 6s / 12s / 24s / 48s.

Without S2_API_KEY: use scholar_search (arXiv fallback) + arxiv_monitor. Skip citation_traverse / recommend / snippet_search — they're S2-only; do not retry.

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References

File	Read when
references/env-vars.md	Setting environment variables
references/search-principles.md	Per-query rules, gap diagnosis, rate-limit recovery
references/disambiguation.md	Query is a project nickname / codename
references/reading-strategy.md	L1 / L2 / L3 reading framework
references/api-reference.md	S2 / arXiv / Jina / HF / GitHub endpoint details
references/arxiv-categories.md	arXiv category codes
references/output-formats.md	Baseline / Disambiguation / Reading-Notes / Citation-Graph templates

References are self-contained. Don't chain between them — return here to re-route.

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Hand off to

Goal	Skill
Survey report	research-survey
Idea generation	research-ideation
Related Work section	paper-writing
Baseline + experiment	experiment-pipeline