git:20260719.fbbb6f9 to git:20260727.e7caac4

---

name: source-map

description: Curate the authoritative sources for a topic before research begins. Surveys adjacent material to discover voices rather than asking the LLM directly who's authoritative — STORM's finding is that direct question-asking does not work well for source discovery. Produces `<topic-slug>-sources.md` grouping candidates by primacy (`primary` / `secondary` / `tertiary`). When invoked downstream of `/identify-perspectives`, groups sources by camp; in standalone invocations, skips the camp-grouping step. Depth cues — `quickly`, `top three`, `briefly`, `summary only` for narrow surveys; `comprehensively`, `exhaustively`, `in depth`, `extensive` for thorough ones.

metadata:

boundaries: [network_fetch]

---

# /source-map

Discovers and curates the sources a research artifact will eventually

cite. Runs upstream of `/desk-research` standard / deep mode and upstream of

the decision pipeline; can also run standalone before any synthesis.

## When to invoke

- Before standard or deep research on an unfamiliar topic.

- After `/identify-perspectives` in the decision pipeline — sources are

grouped per camp.

- Standalone, to scope which authorities a topic actually has.

## Methodology

The core discovery move is **survey-by-adjacency**, not direct

question-asking. STORM's finding: asking the LLM "who's authoritative

on X" produces a generic, training-data-shaped list. Instead, survey

adjacent material — papers that cite each other, blog posts that cross-

reference, communities that share vocabulary — and let the authorities

fall out of the pattern.

Treat any "who is authoritative on X" intuition the LLM produces as

suspect. Discovery is empirical, not asserted.

## Source taxonomy

Every candidate gets three tags:

1. **Authority type** — `practitioner` / `researcher` / `vendor` /

`journalist` / `community` / `regulator`.

2. **Recency** — `current` (≤2 years) / `recent` (2–5 years) /

`historical` (>5 years, still cited).

3. **Primacy** — `primary` (original source — the paper, the spec, the

regulator's text), `secondary` (analyses and syntheses of primary

material), `tertiary` (summaries-of-summaries, textbooks,

encyclopedias).

The primacy tag is the most load-bearing — `/desk-research` triangulation

requires ≥3 independent sources, and independence depends on primacy:

three tertiary sources citing the same primary source count as one.

## Procedure

1. **Survey adjacency** — issue WebSearch on the topic's key terms;

skim the top-cited items; note who cites whom.

2. **Dispatch extraction** — on Claude Code, dispatch `source-extractor`

subagent against the candidate list. Otherwise read each candidate

inline.

3. **Classify** — tag each surviving source by authority + recency +

primacy.

4. **Write `<topic-slug>-sources.md`** — group by primacy (primary first). In a

decision-pipeline invocation, sub-group within primacy by camp (the

upstream `<topic-slug>-perspectives.md` provides the camps). `<topic-slug>`

is the kebab-case topic slug; the naming rule lives in the `/desk-research` skill

body (§ Typed, topic-named artifacts).

5. **Cite the rule** — `/desk-research` will use `<topic-slug>-sources.md` to choose

which sources to triangulate against.

## Upstream / standalone behavior

`/source-map` runs in two shapes:

- **Decision-pipeline invocation** — expects an upstream

`<topic-slug>-perspectives.md`. Sources are grouped by primacy *and* by camp,

so `/compare-hypotheses` downstream can pull camp-aligned sources per

hypothesis.

- **Standalone invocation** — no upstream `<topic-slug>-perspectives.md` required.

Sources grouped by primacy only; the camp-grouping step is skipped.

The skill is **not** invoked by `/decision-archaeology`, which is self-

contained. See that skill's body for why.

## `<topic-slug>-sources.md` output schema

```markdown

# Sources — <topic>

## Primary

- **<title>** ([url]) — <one-sentence summary>. Authority: <type>.

Recency: <bucket>. [synthesis or citation note]

## Secondary

(same shape)

## Tertiary

(same shape)

```

In decision-pipeline mode, each primacy section is sub-grouped by camp

under `### Camp: <name>`.

## Citation discipline

Every entry in `<topic-slug>-sources.md` carries a citation (the URL or local path).

Notes about a source — its angle, its bias, its credibility — are

marked `[synthesis]` when they integrate across sources or `[inference]`

when they deduce from one.

## Depth cues

Adopters can include cue tokens in the prompt to adjust behavior:

- `quickly`, `top three`, `briefly`, `summary only` — narrow the survey;

return the most-cited handful per primacy bucket only.

- `comprehensively`, `exhaustively`, `in depth`, `extensive` — widen

the survey; chase secondary citations into their primary sources;

include weaker authorities for completeness.