Arbor Research Agent

Arbor Research Agent

Use this as the single user-facing entrypoint. The user should be able to say $arbor-research-agent plus a plain-language goal, similar to using arbor, without knowing the internal phase skills.

This skill performs Arbor-style intake and clarification, then hands control to arbor-agent-orchestrator.

Entry Protocol

1. Treat the launch cwd as the default target project unless the user names a different path.
2. Read available local context before asking: README summaries, config/eval hints, cached metrics, dataset notes, and git state.
3. Decide whether the request is clear enough to start. If not, ask concise Arbor-style clarification questions before optimizing.
4. Once the contract is clear, load arbor-agent-orchestrator and continue with its phase loading order.

Do not ask for information that can be discovered safely from local files. Ask only for decisions, permissions, missing objectives, or ambiguous tradeoffs.

Intake Context Budget

Keep wrapper intake small. Its job is to determine the run contract, not to fully analyze the target project.

• Start with pwd, git branch/status, rg --files, and concise slices such as README/config/eval metadata.
• Use rg to locate metric/eval/data hints before opening files. Prefer focused sed -n ranges over full-file reads.
• Do not bulk-read long logs, notebooks, lockfiles, generated outputs, or large source files during wrapper intake.
• For training logs or progress logs, avoid raw cat, raw grep, or broad tail. If arbor-agent-tools is available, use arbor_state.py parse-log; otherwise normalize carriage returns with tr '\r' '\n' and inspect only the metric lines needed for the contract.
• Defer deep code reading to arbor-agent-setup-intake, arbor-agent-executor, or the relevant phase skill after the orchestrator is loaded.

Clarification Gate

If any of these are missing or ambiguous after local inspection, ask before starting the optimization loop:

• Target: project directory, repo branch, and whether the current branch is acceptable.
• Objective: what should improve and whether the run is maximize/minimize.
• Metric/eval: command, score field, B_dev/B_test split, and whether cached baseline evidence may be used.
• Data: data location, protected/private paths, and whether preparation or downloads are allowed.
• Permissions: whether source edits, worktrees, commits, package installs, internet, GPU jobs, long training, and merge attempts are allowed.
• Budget: smoke vs real run, max cycles, wall-clock/training budget, and stop condition.
• Scope preference: novelty-leaning, effect-leaning, performance-first, or mixed.
• Human gates: auto, direction, review, or collaborative mode.

Ask as one compact checkpoint, not a long interview. Example:

I can start, but I need these defaults confirmed:
- target: <cwd>
- objective/metric: <inferred metric, direction>
- eval: <inferred command or unknown>
- run mode: smoke / real
- permissions: may edit code? may run training/GPU? may install packages?
- budget: <cycles/time>

Reply "yes" to accept, or edit any line.

If the user already gave enough information or explicitly says to use defaults, do not block on extra confirmation. Proceed with the best conservative contract.

Contract To Pass Down

Before loading the orchestrator, form a concise contract containing:

• target cwd and git branch;
• instruction/task;
• metric name and direction;
• B_dev/B_test policy;
• baseline status;
• eval command or smoke/cached parser;
• protected files and allowed edit surface;
• run mode and budget;
• user interaction mode;
• any unresolved caveats.

Then load arbor-agent-orchestrator and pass this contract as the run instruction. The orchestrator owns phase loading from that point.

Run Mode Defaults

• If the user asks to "try", "test", "validate", "demo", or "see behavior", default to smoke-only.
• If the project eval is known to run training, downloads, GPU jobs, or minute-scale work, ask before running it.
• In smoke mode, load arbor-agent-tools when native Arbor tools are absent, use cached metrics or arbor_state.py parse-log, generate prompt-executor --smoke, then run check, report, and a final artifact-level check.
• In real mode, still complete setup and contract confirmation before any long eval, training, package install, or merge.

Bootstrap Sequence

After intake:

1. Load arbor-agent-orchestrator.
2. Ensure arbor-agent-setup-intake receives the contract.
   • If the target is not eval-ready (no runnable eval, no dev/test split, or a dirty/absent git repo), the arbor-agent-setup-intake phase scaffolds the measurement plumbing via the scaffold_benchmark tool and persists ARBOR_CONTRACT.md + research_config.yaml. The entry point stays a thin shell — it does not scaffold directly.
3. Let the orchestrator load phase skills as needed:
   • arbor-agent-coordinator
   • arbor-agent-ideate
   • arbor-agent-executor
   • arbor-agent-merge-eval
   • arbor-agent-search
   • arbor-agent-plugins-hitl-budget
   • arbor-agent-resume-report
   • arbor-agent-tools
4. Keep the user-facing behavior at the Arbor level. Do not expose internal skill mechanics unless useful for debugging or reporting.

Expected User Experience

The user can write:

$arbor-research-agent optimize this repo for leaderboard score overnight

or:

$arbor-research-agent try a simplified smoke run on this autoresearch repo

Expected behavior:

• inspect project and infer what can be inferred;
• ask a compact clarification/permission checkpoint if needed;
• create or select .arbor/sessions/<run_name>/;
• initialize durable Idea Tree state;
• run the Arbor loop through orchestrator and phase skills;
• use executor/worktree/report discipline rather than ad hoc edits;
• keep B_test protected;
• stop according to budget or smoke instruction;
• report durable artifacts and caveats.
• once REPORT.md and expected smoke artifacts exist, stop promptly with a concise final response instead of continuing to polish reports or run extra cycles.

Hard Rules

• Do not begin optimization when objective, edit permissions, or expensive eval permission is genuinely ambiguous.
• Do not run training, data downloads, package installs, GPU jobs, or long eval commands before the user has allowed them or the contract clearly permits them.
• Do not use B_test for routine iteration.
• Do not modify protected data/eval/private paths.
• Do not bypass the orchestrator after intake; this skill is the public shell, not a second coordinator implementation.
• Do not spend wrapper context recreating setup, coordinator, or executor logic; once the contract is clear, load the orchestrator.
• Do not continue running after the requested budget is complete and final artifacts have been validated. Finalize with artifact paths, scores, and caveats.