docs(research-methodology): add interruption and timeout recovery guidance

Document that a delegated research worker timeout is an interruption, not a
result: recover partial artifacts, resume from the last durable checkpoint,
and judge completion by evidence completeness rather than elapsed time.

Co-authored-by: factory-droid[bot] <138933558+factory-droid[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
This commit is contained in:
Magnus Hedemark
2026-08-22 18:20:20 -04:00
co-authored by factory-droid[bot] <138933558+factory-droid[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
parent ea26d12be3
commit 2c7c0d59ea
+15
View File
@@ -39,6 +39,21 @@ Before reporting, make the preservation decision explicit:
The right artifact shape depends on the environment. Do not assume a particular database, note-taking application, or orchestration system. The invariant is durable, navigable, evidence-linked research that a later user or agent can discover and build on.
## Interruption and Timeout Recovery
A research worker timeout is an interruption, not a research result. Never close the investigation, summarize it as complete, or infer that no useful work exists because a delegated worker exceeded its execution cap. Long research jobs commonly encounter slow extraction, rate limits, or one unresponsive source after producing valuable partial work.
When a worker times out:
1. Read the complete delegation transcript and inspect the workspace or scratch directory before deciding what was lost.
2. Recover and verify every partial artifact, source log, and extracted claim already written.
3. Resume from the last durable checkpoint rather than restarting broad discovery.
4. Narrow or replace the slow operation, especially large PDF extraction or repeated rate-limited search, and write each subsequent stage incrementally.
5. If the worker cannot be resumed safely, continue the missing research directly or split it into smaller bounded tasks. A timeout changes the execution path, not the acceptance criteria.
6. Do not report completion until the research question is covered, retained sources and claims are represented in the durable evidence artifacts, and unresolved gaps are explicit.
The acceptance gate is evidence completeness and artifact verification, not elapsed time, worker status, or the existence of a plausible partial summary.
## Reference Files
### Tracks