git:20260421.1d4ab15 to git:20260925.a3208eb

2 added, 133 removed. Audit A to B.

- # Corbis Literature Starter Kit

- A lightweight toolkit for exploring academic literature, brainstorming research ideas, and managing citations. Powered by [Corbis](https://corbis.ai) MCP for literature search across 400,000+ academic papers.

- ## Skill routing

- Before responding to any research-related prompt, check whether a skill applies.

- | User is asking about... | Use skill |

- | ------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------- |

- | Survey a topic, write a literature review | `literature-review` |

- | Position a paper, find closest work, contribution | `literature-positioning-map` |

- | Brainstorm research ideas from a topic area | `research-idea-generator` |

- | Screen or score a specific research idea | `finance-idea-screening` |

- | Verify citations in a .bib file | `verify-citations` |

- | Visualize literature trends, gaps, methods | `literature-landscape` |

- ## Corbis tool usage

- **Always search before asserting.** Do not guess about novelty, literature, or data availability when you can check.

- Available tools:

- - `search_papers`, `get_paper_details`, `get_paper_details_batch`, `top_cited_articles` -- literature search

- - `export_citations`, `format_citation` -- citation management

- - `search_datasets` -- data discovery (for idea screening)

- - `fred_search`, `fred_series_batch` -- macro data context

- - `get_market_data`, `compare_markets`, `search_markets`, `get_market_trends` -- CRE market intelligence

- Key principles:

- - Use `search_papers` before claiming any idea is novel

- - Use `compact: true` on `search_papers` when you only need titles and metadata (saves ~80% payload)

- - Use `sortBy: "citedByCount"` to find the most influential papers on a topic

- - Use `get_paper_details_batch` (up to 25 IDs) instead of repeated `get_paper_details` calls

- - Use `top_cited_articles` with the `query` parameter to find highly cited papers on a specific topic within journals

- - Use `export_citations` (format: `bibtex`) to generate bibliography entries

- See `CORBIS_MCP_TOOL_REFERENCE.md` for full tool documentation.

- See `CORBIS_MCP_GUIDE.md` for MCP server architecture and authentication.

- See `CORBIS_MCP_CODEX_GUIDE.md` for Codex setup.

- See `CORBIS_MCP_CLAUDE_CODE_GUIDE.md` for Claude Code setup.

- See `CORBIS_CURSOR_PLUGIN.md` for Cursor plugin setup.

- ## Writing quality

- When producing literature reviews or research prose:

- - Read `references/writing-norms.md` and `references/banned-words.md`

- - Synthesize by theme, do not enumerate paper by paper

- - No filler intensifiers ("crucially," "importantly," "interestingly")

- - No em dashes. Use commas, parentheses, colons, or separate sentences

- - No promotional language ("novel," "groundbreaking")

- - Cite to support claims, not to name-drop

- ## Project structure

- ```

- notes/ # Lab notebook, reading lists, idea menus

- output/ # Literature reviews, positioning memos, idea cards

- paper/ # LaTeX manuscript (copy latex_template/ to start)

- latex_template/ # Clean article template with natbib citations

- references/ # Writing norms, citation formatting

- ```

- ## Shared data files

- Skills produce composable outputs that later skills can reuse. This avoids redundant searches.

- ### `output/paper_set.json`

- Canonical paper dataset. Every skill that searches for papers writes results here. Every skill that needs papers reads this first before running new searches.

- Format: JSON array of paper objects:

- ```json

- [

- {

- "id": "W2002030205",

- "title": "...",

- "authors": ["..."],

- "year": 2001,

- "journal": "...",

- "citedByCount": 2962,

- "abstract": "...",

- "fullText": "...",

- "doi": "...",

- "source_queries": ["query1", "query2"],

- "tier": "foundational"

- }

- ]

- ```

- Rules:

- - If `output/paper_set.json` exists when a skill starts, read it and merge new results (deduplicate by `id`). Do not overwrite.

- - The `fullText` field is included when available from `get_paper_details`. Use it for deeper analysis (method detection, contribution assessment) when present.

- - The `source_queries` field tracks which search queries surfaced this paper (for hub detection).

- - The `tier` field is assigned after collection using relative tiering (see below).

- ### `output/search_log.md`

- Search transparency log. Every skill appends its searches here so the user can see exactly what was queried.

- Format per entry:

- ```markdown

- ### [DATE] — [Skill name]

- |---|-------|--------|---------|------|

- | 1 | "political connections firm value" | sortBy: citedByCount, matchCount: 15 | 15 | 12 |

- | 2 | "political connections finance" | minYear: 2020, matchCount: 15 | 15 | 8 |

- Dedup: removed 5 duplicates. Final set: 35 papers.

- ```

- ### Relative citation tiering

- Citation thresholds vary by field. Instead of fixed cutoffs (500/100), use relative ranking within the collected paper set:

- |---|---|---|---|

- A paper that appears in 3+ different search queries (`source_queries` length >= 3) is promoted one tier regardless of citation rank.

- ## Lab notebook

- Every skill that produces a deliverable appends a dated entry to `notes/lab_notebook.md`. If the file does not exist, create it with a header: `# Lab Notebook`.

- ## Paper-reader agent

- The paper-reader agent (`.claude/agents/paper-reader.md`) can read and summarize academic PDFs. After a literature search identifies the top 3-5 most central papers, recommend that the user run the paper-reader on those papers for deeper understanding before writing synthesis claims.

- ## Defaults

- - **Output format**: Save literature reviews and memos to `output/` as Markdown. Save BibTeX to `.bib` files. When the user is ready for LaTeX, write directly into `.tex` files using the Edit tool.

- - **Citations**: Use `\citet{}` and `\citep{}` (natbib). Bibliography style: `plainnat`.

+ # AGENTS.md is the canonical context file. Only add context there.

+ @AGENTS.md