| name | lit-review |
| description | Structured literature review workflow. Use when the user asks to "do a lit review", "review this paper", "triage these papers", "compare papers", or mentions arXiv, research papers, or academic literature. |
Literature Review
Structured capture of research papers for a knowledge base. Reviews enable conceptual reconstruction of studies and synthesis across the field.
Modes
Triage
Quick 2-3 sentence summary for go/no-go decisions. Use when screening multiple papers.
Format: Title, authors, venue -> what it claims -> why it might matter (or not).
Full Review
Comprehensive structured capture. Default mode when asked to "review" or "do a lit review."
See references/review-template.md for full structure.
Compare
Pull scores across multiple reviews for synthesis. Use when asked to compare papers or do meta-analysis.
Generate comparison table from frontmatter fields, then narrative synthesis of patterns.
Full Review Workflow
- Fetch the paper - Use WebFetch for arXiv HTML, WebSearch for finding papers, or read from provided PDF/URL
- Extract metadata - Authors, venue, date, arXiv ID, paper type
- Identify core contribution - Problem statement, key claim, key insight
- Map the architecture - Components, mechanisms, design decisions with rationale
- Assess evaluation - Setup, key results, ablations, failure modes (high-level)
- Critical analysis - Stated limitations, our critiques, methodological concerns
- Score analysis dimensions - Apply rubric from
references/cybernetic-rubric.md
- Connect to research goals - How does this relate to your research questions?
- Flag open questions - What's left unanswered?
Weave quotable passages inline where they strengthen other sections.
Output Format
Hybrid: YAML frontmatter (structured, queryable) + markdown prose (nuanced analysis).
---
title: "Paper Title"
authors: [Author One, Author Two]
venue: Conference/Journal Name
date: YYYY-MM-DD
arxiv: "XXXX.XXXXX"
paper_type: empirical | theoretical | system | survey | benchmark
tags: [tag1, tag2]
cybernetics:
feedback_loops: true | false | partial
learning_level: 0 | I | II | III
requisite_variety: true | false | partial
self_regulation: true | false | partial
human_in_loop: explicit | implicit | none
---
Key Principles
- Conceptual reconstruction: Capture enough to design something similar, not to replicate exactly
- Research memory: This extends beyond training knowledge - be thorough on recent work
- Compression for synthesis: These get combined into meta-analyses - make them comparable
- Analysis lens: Always assess control-relevant dimensions
Gotchas
Empty — add failure modes here as they're discovered in real use.
Additional Resources
Reference Files
references/review-template.md - Full review structure with section guidance
references/cybernetic-rubric.md - Scoring rubric with analysis dimensions
Examples
examples/saga-review.md - Complete review demonstrating the format