ev-scout — breadth-first pre-curation context

Run before Phase 1 of /gaia-full-pipeline, including an already-submitted gaia push batch (Strategy F). May also run standalone, before L4 mapping. This is a lightweight read/search pass, not the later /ev-discovery Phase 0 nor a substitute for /ev-pipeline. Scouting is deliberately permissive; downstream verification and /ev-adversarial-audit are deliberately skeptical.

Inputs

Use the declared skill URL(s), upstream SKILL.md or repository, intake issue, and proposed generic concepts (if available). Keep multiple skills in a batch distinct, especially for named-only evidence. Do not require an L4-approved generic mapping: report tentative alternatives when topology is unresolved.

Search widely, without grading

Explore several search angles and independent source families:

1. Generic capability: peer-reviewed papers, preprints, evaluations, general benchmark methodologies, foundational approaches, rival systems, and criticism or failure modes.
2. Named implementation: source repo, specific SKILL.md blobs, releases, tests, CI/reproduction claims, independently authored reviews, reported use, security findings, adoption or reproducible demonstrations.
3. Comparison: alternative architectures and negative findings that could falsify claimed benefits. Prefer disconfirming evidence when the first results are uniformly promotional.
4. Evaluation opportunities: candidate benchmark IDs, public methodology, datasets, harnesses and missing reproducibility details. A vendor claim is never a verified benchmark-result.

Try broad and narrow queries; sample independent sources rather than repeatedly searching the same host. Favor diversity of useful leads over an illusion of completeness. Do not discard a relevant lead just because it may later fail. Do not turn mere topic relevance into implementation-specific proof.

Use available search and repository-read tools. If Firecrawl is available, follow /ev-discovery's authentication/preflight and quoting conventions. If not, use other available read/search tools, or report search limitations. Absence of search is not a curation blocker: return a clearly incomplete packet.

Output: scout packet

Produce a Markdown packet in the handoff or at generated-output/ev-scout/<intake-or-slug>.md when a persistent file is needed. Include:

• target skill(s), upstream URL(s), date, searched queries/source families, tools used or unavailable, and mapping status (tentative or ratified);
• a table of leads, with URL, title/publisher, publication date if known, possible canonical Gaia evidence type, generic/named/benchmark-catalog scope, what it might substantiate, and what a verifier must still confirm;
• a separate counterevidence and competing approaches section;
• likely evaluation benchmarks as benchmark-source candidates only, including proposed generic applicability and missing reproducibility fields;
• a short mapping-relevant synthesis that distinguishes architecture from demonstrated performance and marks uncertainty explicitly;
• suggested verification priorities and handoff to /ev-discovery, /ev-pipeline, and /gaia-ingest-batch after their normal human gates.

Use "candidate", "possible", or "unverified" until evidence is checked. Never fabricate publication dates, citations, percentile values, peer-review status, scores, or external adoption. Mark unavailable facts unknown.

Non-authority and handoff

No registry mutations, evidence-lake edits, GitHub approval labels, L4 ratification, star grades, Trust Magnitude, or automatic evidence ingestion. This packet informs /gaia-draft-curate, /gaia-curate[-chain/-dynamic], and the human L4 review; it does not override their workflows.

Later /ev-discovery can investigate selected Stage-2 leads; /ev-collection normalizes typed candidate rows; /ev-benchmark-verification and /ev-adversarial-audit challenge them; /ev-link-validation checks links; human review and canonical Gaia CLI ingestion remain authoritative.

If a recent scout packet for this exact source exists, reuse and refresh it rather than rescouting blindly. Record any new material or limitations.