statement: All action must be research-led. The depth of research must be proportional to the importance of the task.

source: Core Foundation Mandate

priority: INVIOLABLE


statement: Research depth scales from TRIVIAL (0) to ULTRATHINK (4) based on: reversibility, blast radius, novelty, confidence, and stakes.

source: Research Router Protocol

priority: HARDWIRED


statement: Claims about external systems auto-escalate to minimum DEEP (Level 3) research with mandatory primary source verification.

source: Clickbait Incident Learning


statement: Foundational decisions auto-escalate to ULTRATHINK (Level 4) with pre-mortem, adversarial verification, and human confirmation.


statement: Verification gates for each research level must ALL pass before action proceeds. No exceptions.


statement: When in doubt about research depth, go one level deeper. The cost of over-research is always less than the cost of error.

source: Quality Compounds Principle

priority: GUIDELINE


statement: Dramatic headlines/titles (clickbait patterns) trigger automatic escalation - verify claims against actual content.

source: TASKS Overclaim Incident


statement: Research Router sits BEFORE all other protocols - it determines how much thinking happens before any action begins.

source: Protocol Hierarchy

priority: ARCHITECTURAL