@research-copilot/plugin 1.1.16 → 1.1.18

package/dist/skills/research-refine/SKILL.md

@@ -0,0 +1,716 @@
+---
+name: "research-refine"
+description: "Turn a vague research direction into a problem-anchored, elegant, frontier-aware, implementation-oriented method plan via iterative GPT-5.5 review. Use when the user says \"refine my approach\", \"\u5e2e\u6211\u7ec6\u5316\u65b9\u6848\", \"decompose this problem\", \"\u6253\u78e8idea\", \"refine research plan\", \"\u7ec6\u5316\u7814\u7a76\u65b9\u6848\", or wants a concrete research method that stays simple, focused, and top-venue ready instead of a vague or overbuilt idea."
+---
+
+# Research Refine: Problem-Anchored, Elegant, Frontier-Aware Plan Refinement
+
+Refine and concretize: **$ARGUMENTS**
+
+## Overview
+
+Use this skill when the research problem is already visible but the technical route is still fuzzy. The goal is not to produce a bloated proposal or a benchmark shopping list. The goal is to turn a vague direction into a **problem -> focused method -> minimal validation** document that is concrete enough to implement, elegant enough to feel paper-worthy, and current enough to resonate in the foundation-model era.
+
+Four principles dominate this skill:
+
+1. **Do not lose the original problem.** Freeze an immutable **Problem Anchor** and reuse it in every round.
+2. **The smallest adequate mechanism wins.** Prefer the minimal intervention that directly fixes the bottleneck.
+3. **One paper, one dominant contribution.** Prefer one sharp thesis plus at most one supporting contribution.
+4. **Modern leverage is a prior, not a decoration.** When LLM / VLM / Diffusion / RL / distillation / inference-time scaling naturally fit the bottleneck, use them concretely. Do not bolt them on as buzzwords.
+
+```
+User input (PROBLEM + vague APPROACH)
+  -> Phase 0 (Local step): Freeze Problem Anchor
+  -> Phase 1 (Local step): Scan grounding papers -> identify technical gap -> choose the sharpest route -> write focused proposal
+  -> Phase 2 (Codex/GPT-5.5): Review for fidelity, specificity, contribution quality, and frontier leverage
+  -> Phase 3 (Local step): Anchor check + simplicity check -> revise method -> rewrite full proposal
+  -> Phase 4 (Codex, same agent): Re-evaluate revised proposal
+  -> Repeat Phase 3-4 until OVERALL SCORE >= 9 or MAX_ROUNDS reached
+  -> Phase 5: Save full history to refine-logs/
+  -> Optional handoff: /experiment-plan for a detailed execution-ready experiment roadmap
+```
+
+## Constants
+
+- **REVIEWER_MODEL = `gpt-5.5`** — Reviewer model used via a secondary Codex agent.
+- **MAX_ROUNDS = 5** — Maximum review-revise rounds.
+- **SCORE_THRESHOLD = 9** — Minimum overall score to stop.
+- **OUTPUT_DIR = `refine-logs/`** — Directory for round files and final report.
+- **MAX_LOCAL_PAPERS = 15** — Maximum local papers/notes to scan for grounding.
+- **MAX_CORE_EXPERIMENTS = 3** — Default cap for core validation blocks inside this skill.
+- **MAX_PRIMARY_CLAIMS = 2** — Soft cap for paper-level claims. Prefer one dominant claim plus one supporting claim.
+- **MAX_NEW_TRAINABLE_COMPONENTS = 2** — Soft cap for genuinely new trainable pieces. Exceed only if the paper breaks otherwise.
+
+> Override via argument if needed, e.g. `/research-refine "problem | approach" -- max rounds: 3, threshold: 9`.
+
+## State Persistence (Checkpoint Recovery)
+
+Long-running refinement sessions may fail mid-way (API timeout, context compaction, or session interruption). To avoid losing completed work, persist state to `refine-logs/REFINE_STATE.json` after each phase boundary:
+
+```json
+{
+  "phase": "review",
+  "round": 1,
+  "agent_id": "019cd392-...",
+  "last_score": 6.5,
+  "last_verdict": "REVISE",
+  "status": "in_progress",
+  "timestamp": "2026-03-22T20:00:00"
+}
+```
+
+Write after each completed phase. On completion, set `"status": "completed"`.
+
+## Output Structure
+
+```
+refine-logs/
+├── REFINE_STATE.json
+├── round-0-initial-proposal.md
+├── round-1-review.md
+├── round-1-refinement.md
+├── round-2-review.md
+├── round-2-refinement.md
+├── ...
+├── REVIEW_SUMMARY.md
+├── FINAL_PROPOSAL.md
+├── REFINEMENT_REPORT.md
+└── score-history.md
+```
+
+Every `round-N-refinement.md` must contain a **full anchored proposal**, not just incremental fixes.
+
+## Workflow
+
+### Initialization (Checkpoint Recovery)
+
+Before starting any phase, check whether a previous run left a checkpoint:
+
+1. **Check for `refine-logs/REFINE_STATE.json`**:
+   - If it does not exist → fresh start
+   - If it exists and `status` is `"completed"` → fresh start
+   - If it exists and `status` is `"in_progress"` but `timestamp` is older than 24 hours → fresh start
+   - If it exists and `status` is `"in_progress"` within 24 hours → resume
+2. **On resume**:
+   - Read all existing `refine-logs/round-*.md` files and `score-history.md`
+   - Recover `agent_id` for reviewer continuity
+   - Resume from the next phase based on the saved `phase`
+3. **On fresh start**, ensure `refine-logs/` exists and proceed to Phase 0.
+
+### Phase 0: Freeze the Problem Anchor
+
+Before proposing anything, extract the user's immutable bottom-line problem. This anchor must be copied verbatim into every proposal and every refinement round.
+
+Write:
+
+- **Bottom-line problem**: What technical problem must be solved?
+- **Must-solve bottleneck**: What specific weakness in current methods is unacceptable?
+- **Non-goals**: What is explicitly *not* the goal of this project?
+- **Constraints**: Compute, data, time, tooling, venue, deployment limits.
+- **Success condition**: What evidence would make the user say "yes, this method addresses the actual problem"?
+
+If later reviewer feedback would change the problem being solved, mark that as **drift** and push back or adapt carefully.
+
+**Checkpoint:** Write `refine-logs/REFINE_STATE.json` with `{"phase": "anchor", "round": 0, "agent_id": null, "last_score": null, "last_verdict": null, "status": "in_progress", "timestamp": "<now>"}`.
+
+### Phase 1: Build the Initial Proposal
+
+#### Step 1.1: Scan Grounding Material
+
+Check `papers/` and `literature/` first. Read only the relevant parts needed to answer:
+
+- What mechanism do current methods use?
+- Where exactly do they fail for this problem?
+- Which recent LLM / VLM / Diffusion / RL era techniques are actually relevant here?
+- What training objectives, representations, or interfaces are reusable?
+- What details distinguish a real method from a renamed high-level idea?
+
+If local material is insufficient, search recent top-venue/arXiv work online. Focus on **method sections, training setup, and failure modes**, not just abstracts.
+
+#### Step 1.2: Identify the Technical Gap
+
+Do not stop at generic research questions. Make the gap operational:
+
+1. **Current pipeline failure point**: where does the baseline break?
+2. **Why naive fixes are insufficient**: larger context, more data, prompting, memory bank, or stacking more modules.
+3. **Smallest adequate intervention**: what is the least additional mechanism that could plausibly fix the bottleneck?
+4. **Frontier-native alternative**: is there a more current route using foundation-model-era primitives that better matches the bottleneck?
+5. **Core technical claim**: what exact mechanism claim could survive top-venue scrutiny?
+6. **Required evidence**: what minimum proof is needed to defend that claim?
+
+#### Step 1.3: Choose the Sharpest Route
+
+Before locking the method, compare two candidate routes if both are plausible:
+
+- **Route A: Elegant minimal route** — the smallest mechanism that directly targets the bottleneck.
+- **Route B: Frontier-native route** — a more modern route that uses LLM / VLM / Diffusion / RL / distillation / inference-time scaling *only if* it gives a cleaner or stronger story.
+
+Then decide:
+
+- Which route is more likely to become a strong paper under the stated constraints?
+- Which route has the cleaner novelty story relative to the closest work?
+- Which route avoids contribution sprawl?
+
+If both routes are weak, rethink the framing instead of combining them into a larger system by default.
+
+#### Step 1.4: Concretize the Method First
+
+The proposal must answer "how would we actually build this?" Prefer method detail over broad experimentation and prefer reuse over invention.
+
+Cover:
+
+1. **One-sentence method thesis**: the single strongest mechanism claim.
+2. **Contribution focus**: one dominant contribution and at most one supporting contribution.
+3. **Complexity budget**: what is frozen or reused, what is new, and what tempting additions are intentionally excluded.
+4. **System graph**: modules, data flow, inputs, outputs.
+5. **Representation design**: what latent, embedding, plan token, reward signal, memory state, or alignment space is used?
+6. **Training recipe**: data source, supervision, pseudo-labeling, negatives, curriculum, losses, weighting, stagewise vs joint training.
+7. **Inference path**: how the trained components are used at test time and what signals flow where.
+8. **Why the mechanism stays small**: why a larger stack is unnecessary.
+9. **Exact role of any frontier primitive**: if you use an LLM / VLM / Diffusion / RL component, specify whether it acts as planner, teacher, critic, reward model, generator prior, search controller, or distillation source.
+10. **Failure handling**: what could go wrong and what fallback or diagnostic exists?
+11. **Novelty and elegance argument**: why this is more than naming a module and why the paper still looks focused.
+
+If the method is still only described as "add a module" or "use a planner," it is not concrete enough.
+
+#### Step 1.5: Design Minimal Claim-Driven Validation
+
+Experiments exist to validate the method, not to dominate the document.
+
+For each core claim, define the **smallest strong experiment** that can validate it:
+
+- the claim being tested
+- the necessary baseline or ablation
+- the decisive metric
+- the expected directional outcome
+
+Additional rules:
+
+- Ensure one experiment block directly supports the **Problem Anchor**.
+- If complexity risk exists, include one **simplification or deletion check**.
+- If a frontier primitive is central, include one **necessity check** showing why that choice matters.
+- Default to **1-3 core experiment blocks** and leave the full execution roadmap to `/experiment-plan`.
+
+#### Step 1.6: Write the Initial Proposal
+
+Save to `refine-logs/round-0-initial-proposal.md`.
+
+Use this structure:
+
+```markdown
+# Research Proposal: [Title]
+
+## Problem Anchor
+- Bottom-line problem:
+- Must-solve bottleneck:
+- Non-goals:
+- Constraints:
+- Success condition:
+
+## Technical Gap
+[Why current methods fail, why naive bigger systems are not enough, and what mechanism is missing]
+
+## Method Thesis
+- One-sentence thesis:
+- Why this is the smallest adequate intervention:
+- Why this route is timely in the foundation-model era:
+
+## Contribution Focus
+- Dominant contribution:
+- Optional supporting contribution:
+- Explicit non-contributions:
+
+## Proposed Method
+### Complexity Budget
+- Frozen / reused backbone:
+- New trainable components:
+- Tempting additions intentionally not used:
+
+### System Overview
+[Step-by-step pipeline or ASCII graph]
+
+### Core Mechanism
+- Input / output:
+- Architecture or policy:
+- Training signal / loss:
+- Why this is the main novelty:
+
+### Optional Supporting Component
+- Only include if truly necessary:
+- Input / output:
+- Training signal / loss:
+- Why it does not create contribution sprawl:
+
+### Modern Primitive Usage
+- Which LLM / VLM / Diffusion / RL-era primitive is used:
+- Exact role in the pipeline:
+- Why it is more natural than an old-school alternative:
+
+### Integration into Base Generator / Downstream Pipeline
+[Where the new method attaches, what is frozen, what is trainable, inference order]
+
+### Training Plan
+[Stagewise or joint training, losses, data construction, pseudo-labels, schedules]
+
+### Failure Modes and Diagnostics
+- [Failure mode]:
+- [How to detect]:
+- [Fallback or mitigation]:
+
+### Novelty and Elegance Argument
+[Closest work, exact difference, why this is a focused mechanism-level contribution rather than a module pile-up]
+
+## Claim-Driven Validation Sketch
+### Claim 1: [Main claim]
+- Minimal experiment:
+- Baselines / ablations:
+- Metric:
+- Expected evidence:
+
+### Claim 2: [Optional]
+- Minimal experiment:
+- Baselines / ablations:
+- Metric:
+- Expected evidence:
+
+## Experiment Handoff Inputs
+- Must-prove claims:
+- Must-run ablations:
+- Critical datasets / metrics:
+- Highest-risk assumptions:
+
+## Compute & Timeline Estimate
+- Estimated GPU-hours:
+- Data / annotation cost:
+- Timeline:
+```
+
+**Checkpoint:** Update `refine-logs/REFINE_STATE.json` with `{"phase": "proposal", "round": 0, ...}`.
+
+### Phase 2: External Method Review (Round 1)
+
+Send the full proposal to GPT-5.5 for an **elegance-first, frontier-aware, method-first** review. The reviewer should spend most of the critique budget on the method itself, not on expanding the experiment menu.
+
+```
+spawn_agent:
+  model: REVIEWER_MODEL
+  reasoning_effort: xhigh
+  message: |
+    You are a senior ML reviewer for a top venue (NeurIPS/ICML/ICLR).
+    This is an early-stage, method-first research proposal.
+
+    Your job is NOT to reward extra modules, contribution sprawl, or a giant benchmark checklist.
+    Your job IS to stress-test whether the proposed method:
+    (1) still solves the original anchored problem,
+    (2) is concrete enough to implement,
+    (3) presents a focused, elegant contribution,
+    (4) uses foundation-model-era techniques appropriately when they are the natural fit.
+
+    Review principles:
+    - Prefer the smallest adequate mechanism over a larger system.
+    - Penalize parallel contributions that make the paper feel unfocused.
+    - If a modern LLM / VLM / Diffusion / RL route would clearly produce a better paper, say so concretely.
+    - If the proposal is already modern enough, do NOT force trendy components.
+    - Do not ask for extra experiments unless they are needed to prove the core claims.
+
+    Read the Problem Anchor first. If your suggested fix would change the problem being solved,
+    call that out explicitly as drift instead of treating it as a normal revision request.
+
+    === PROPOSAL ===
+    [Paste the FULL proposal from Phase 1]
+    === END PROPOSAL ===
+
+    Score these 7 dimensions from 1-10:
+
+    1. **Problem Fidelity**: Does the method still attack the original bottleneck, or has it drifted into solving something easier or different?
+
+    2. **Method Specificity**: Are the interfaces, representations, losses, training stages, and inference path concrete enough that an engineer could start implementing?
+
+    3. **Contribution Quality**: Is there one dominant mechanism-level contribution with real novelty, good parsimony, and no obvious contribution sprawl?
+
+    4. **Frontier Leverage**: Does the proposal use current foundation-model-era primitives appropriately when they are the right tool, instead of defaulting to old-school module stacking?
+
+    5. **Feasibility**: Can this method be trained and integrated with the stated resources and data assumptions?
+
+    6. **Validation Focus**: Are the proposed experiments minimal but sufficient to validate the core claims? Is there unnecessary experimental bloat?
+
+    7. **Venue Readiness**: If executed well, would the contribution feel sharp and timely enough for a top venue?
+
+    **OVERALL SCORE** (1-10): Weighted toward Problem Fidelity, Method Specificity, Contribution Quality, and Frontier Leverage.
+    Use this weighting: Problem Fidelity 15%, Method Specificity 25%, Contribution Quality 25%, Frontier Leverage 15%, Feasibility 10%, Validation Focus 5%, Venue Readiness 5%.
+
+    For each dimension scoring < 7, provide:
+    - The specific weakness
+    - A concrete fix at the method level (interface / loss / training recipe / integration point / deletion of unnecessary parts)
+    - Priority: CRITICAL / IMPORTANT / MINOR
+
+    Then add:
+    - **Simplification Opportunities**: 1-3 concrete ways to delete, merge, or reuse components while preserving the main claim. Write "NONE" if already tight.
+    - **Modernization Opportunities**: 1-3 concrete ways to replace old-school pieces with more natural foundation-model-era primitives if genuinely better. Write "NONE" if already modern enough.
+    - **Drift Warning**: "NONE" if the proposal still solves the anchored problem; otherwise explain the drift clearly.
+    - **Verdict**: READY / REVISE / RETHINK
+
+    Verdict rule:
+    - READY: overall score >= 9, no meaningful drift, one focused dominant contribution, and no obvious complexity bloat remains
+    - REVISE: the direction is promising but not yet at READY bar
+    - RETHINK: the core mechanism or framing is still fundamentally off
+```
+
+**CRITICAL: Save the `agent_id`** from this call for all later rounds.
+
+**CRITICAL: Save the FULL raw response** verbatim.
+
+Save review to `refine-logs/round-1-review.md` with the raw response in a `<details>` block.
+
+**Checkpoint:** Update `refine-logs/REFINE_STATE.json` with `{"phase": "review", "round": 1, "agent_id": "<saved>", "last_score": <parsed>, "last_verdict": "<parsed>", ...}`.
+
+### Phase 3: Parse Feedback and Revise the Method
+
+#### Step 3.1: Parse the Review
+
+Extract:
+
+- **Problem Fidelity**
+- **Method Specificity**
+- **Contribution Quality**
+- **Frontier Leverage**
+- **Feasibility**
+- **Validation Focus**
+- **Venue Readiness**
+- **Overall score**
+- **Verdict**
+- **Drift Warning**
+- **Simplification Opportunities**
+- **Modernization Opportunities**
+- **Action items** ranked by priority
+
+Update `refine-logs/score-history.md`:
+
+```markdown
+# Score Evolution
+
+| Round | Problem Fidelity | Method Specificity | Contribution Quality | Frontier Leverage | Feasibility | Validation Focus | Venue Readiness | Overall | Verdict |
+|-------|------------------|--------------------|----------------------|-------------------|-------------|------------------|-----------------|---------|---------|
+| 1     | X                | X                  | X                    | X                 | X           | X                | X               | X       | REVISE  |
+```
+
+**STOP CONDITION**: If overall score >= SCORE_THRESHOLD, verdict is READY, and there is no unresolved drift warning, skip to Phase 5.
+
+#### Step 3.2: Revise With an Anchor Check and a Simplicity Check
+
+Before changing anything:
+
+1. Copy the **Problem Anchor verbatim**.
+2. Write an **Anchor Check**:
+   - What is the original bottleneck?
+   - Does the current method still solve it?
+   - Which reviewer suggestions would cause drift if followed blindly?
+3. Write a **Simplicity Check**:
+   - What is the dominant contribution now?
+   - What components can be removed, merged, or kept frozen?
+   - Which reviewer suggestions add unnecessary complexity?
+   - If a frontier primitive is central, is its role still crisp and justified?
+
+Then process reviewer feedback:
+
+- If **valid**: sharpen the mechanism, simplify if possible, or modernize if the paper really improves.
+- If **debatable**: revise, but explain your reasoning with evidence.
+- If **wrong, drifting, or over-complicating**: push back with evidence from local papers and the Problem Anchor.
+
+Bias the revisions toward:
+
+- a sharper central contribution
+- fewer moving parts
+- cleaner reuse of strong existing backbones
+- more natural foundation-model-era leverage when it improves the paper
+- leaner, claim-driven experiments
+
+Do **not** add multiple parallel contributions just to chase score. If the reviewer requests another module, first ask whether the same gain can come from a better interface, distillation signal, reward model, or inference policy on top of an existing backbone.
+
+Save to `refine-logs/round-N-refinement.md`:
+
+```markdown
+# Round N Refinement
+
+## Problem Anchor
+[Copy verbatim from round 0]
+
+## Anchor Check
+- Original bottleneck:
+- Why the revised method still addresses it:
+- Reviewer suggestions rejected as drift:
+
+## Simplicity Check
+- Dominant contribution after revision:
+- Components removed or merged:
+- Reviewer suggestions rejected as unnecessary complexity:
+- Why the remaining mechanism is still the smallest adequate route:
+
+## Changes Made
+
+### 1. [Method section changed]
+- Reviewer said:
+- Action:
+- Reasoning:
+- Impact on core method:
+
+### 2. [Novelty / modernity / feasibility / validation change]
+- Reviewer said:
+- Action:
+- Reasoning:
+- Impact on core method:
+
+## Revised Proposal
+[Full updated proposal from Problem Anchor through Claim-Driven Validation Sketch]
+```
+
+**Checkpoint:** Update `refine-logs/REFINE_STATE.json` with `{"phase": "refine", "round": N, ...}`.
+
+### Phase 4: Re-evaluation (Round 2+)
+
+Send the revised proposal back to GPT-5.5 in the **same agent**:
+
+```
+send_input:
+  id: [saved from Phase 2]
+  model: REVIEWER_MODEL
+  reasoning_effort: xhigh
+  message: |
+    [Round N re-evaluation]
+
+    I revised the proposal based on your feedback.
+    First, check whether the original Problem Anchor is still preserved.
+    Second, judge whether the method is now more concrete, more focused, and more current.
+
+    Key changes:
+    1. [Method change 1]
+    2. [Method change 2]
+    3. [Simplification / modernization / pushback if any]
+
+    === REVISED PROPOSAL ===
+    [Paste the FULL revised proposal]
+    === END REVISED PROPOSAL ===
+
+    Please:
+    - Re-score the same 7 dimensions and overall
+    - State whether the Problem Anchor is preserved or drifted
+    - State whether the dominant contribution is now sharper or still too broad
+    - State whether the method is simpler or still overbuilt
+    - State whether the frontier leverage is now appropriate or still old-school / forced
+    - Focus new critiques on missing mechanism, weak training signal, weak integration point, pseudo-novelty, or unnecessary complexity
+    - Use the same verdict rule: READY only if overall score >= 9 and no blocking issue remains
+
+    Same output format: 7 scores, overall score, verdict, drift warning, simplification opportunities, modernization opportunities, remaining action items.
+```
+
+Save review to `refine-logs/round-N-review.md`.
+
+**Checkpoint:** Update `refine-logs/REFINE_STATE.json` with `{"phase": "review", "round": N, "agent_id": "<saved>", "last_score": <parsed>, "last_verdict": "<parsed>", ...}`.
+
+Then return to Phase 3 until:
+
+- **Overall score >= SCORE_THRESHOLD** and verdict is READY and no unresolved drift
+- or **MAX_ROUNDS reached**
+
+### Phase 5: Final Report and Logs
+
+#### Step 5.1: Write `refine-logs/REVIEW_SUMMARY.md`
+
+This file is the high-level round-by-round review record. It should answer: each round was trying to solve what, what changed, what got resolved, and what remained.
+
+```markdown
+# Review Summary
+
+**Problem**: [user's problem]
+**Initial Approach**: [user's vague approach]
+**Date**: [today]
+**Rounds**: N / MAX_ROUNDS
+**Final Score**: X / 10
+**Final Verdict**: [READY / REVISE / RETHINK]
+
+## Problem Anchor
+[Verbatim anchor used across all rounds]
+
+## Round-by-Round Resolution Log
+
+| Round | Main Reviewer Concerns | What This Round Simplified / Modernized | Solved? | Remaining Risk |
+|-------|-------------------------|------------------------------------------|---------|----------------|
+| 1     | [top issues from review] | [main method changes]                    | [yes / partial / no] | [if any] |
+| 2     | ...                     | ...                                      | ...     | ...            |
+
+## Overall Evolution
+- [How the method became more concrete]
+- [How the dominant contribution became more focused]
+- [How unnecessary complexity was removed]
+- [How modern technical leverage improved or stayed intentionally minimal]
+- [How drift was avoided or corrected]
+
+## Final Status
+- Anchor status: [preserved / corrected / unresolved]
+- Focus status: [tight / slightly broad / still diffuse]
+- Modernity status: [appropriately frontier-aware / intentionally conservative / still old-school]
+- Strongest parts of final method:
+- Remaining weaknesses:
+```
+
+#### Step 5.2: Write `refine-logs/FINAL_PROPOSAL.md`
+
+This file is the clean final version document. It should contain only the final proposal itself, without review chatter, round history, or raw reviewer output.
+
+```markdown
+# Research Proposal: [Title]
+
+[Paste the final refined proposal only]
+```
+
+If the final verdict is not READY, still write the best current final version here.
+
+#### Step 5.3: Write `refine-logs/REFINEMENT_REPORT.md`
+
+```markdown
+# Refinement Report
+
+**Problem**: [user's problem]
+**Initial Approach**: [user's vague approach]
+**Date**: [today]
+**Rounds**: N / MAX_ROUNDS
+**Final Score**: X / 10
+**Final Verdict**: [READY / REVISE / RETHINK]
+
+## Problem Anchor
+[Verbatim anchor used across all rounds]
+
+## Output Files
+- Review summary: `refine-logs/REVIEW_SUMMARY.md`
+- Final proposal: `refine-logs/FINAL_PROPOSAL.md`
+
+## Score Evolution
+
+| Round | Problem Fidelity | Method Specificity | Contribution Quality | Frontier Leverage | Feasibility | Validation Focus | Venue Readiness | Overall | Verdict |
+|-------|------------------|--------------------|----------------------|-------------------|-------------|------------------|-----------------|---------|---------|
+| 1     | ...              | ...                | ...                  | ...               | ...         | ...              | ...             | ...     | ...     |
+
+## Round-by-Round Review Record
+
+| Round | Main Reviewer Concerns | What Was Changed | Result |
+|-------|-------------------------|------------------|--------|
+| 1     | [top issues]            | [main fixes]     | [resolved / partial / unresolved] |
+| 2     | ...                     | ...              | ...    |
+
+## Final Proposal Snapshot
+- Canonical clean version lives in `refine-logs/FINAL_PROPOSAL.md`
+- Summarize the final thesis in 3-5 bullets here
+
+## Method Evolution Highlights
+1. [Most important simplification or focusing move]
+2. [Most important mechanism upgrade]
+3. [Most important modernization or justification for staying simple]
+
+## Pushback / Drift Log
+| Round | Reviewer Said | Author Response | Outcome |
+|-------|---------------|-----------------|---------|
+| 1     | [criticism]   | [pushback + anchor / evidence] | [accepted / rejected] |
+
+## Remaining Weaknesses
+[Honest unresolved issues]
+
+## Raw Reviewer Responses
+
+<details>
+<summary>Round 1 Review</summary>
+
+[Full verbatim response from GPT-5.5]
+
+</details>
+
+...
+
+## Next Steps
+- If READY: proceed to `/experiment-plan` for a full experiment roadmap, then `/run-experiment`
+- If REVISE: manually address the remaining mechanism weaknesses, then re-run `/research-refine`
+- If RETHINK: revisit the core mechanism, possibly with `/idea-creator`
+```
+
+#### Step 5.4: Finalize `score-history.md`
+
+Ensure it contains the complete score evolution table using the new dimensions.
+
+#### Step 5.5: Present a Brief Summary to the User
+
+```
+Refinement complete after N rounds.
+
+Final score: X/10 (Verdict: READY / REVISE / RETHINK)
+
+Anchor status:
+- [preserved / drift corrected / unresolved concern]
+
+Focus status:
+- [tight / slightly broad / still diffuse]
+
+Modernity status:
+- [appropriately frontier-aware / intentionally conservative / still old-school]
+
+Key method upgrades:
+- [method change 1]
+- [method change 2]
+
+Remaining concerns:
+- [if any]
+
+Review summary: refine-logs/REVIEW_SUMMARY.md
+Full report: refine-logs/REFINEMENT_REPORT.md
+Final proposal: refine-logs/FINAL_PROPOSAL.md
+Suggested next step: /experiment-plan
+```
+
+**Checkpoint:** Update `refine-logs/REFINE_STATE.json` with `{"phase": "done", "status": "completed", ...}`.
+
+## Output Protocols
+
+> Follow these shared protocols for all output files:
+> - **[Output Versioning Protocol](../../shared-references/output-versioning.md)** — write timestamped file first, then copy to fixed name
+> - **[Output Manifest Protocol](../../shared-references/output-manifest.md)** — log every output to MANIFEST.md
+> - **[Output Language Protocol](../../shared-references/output-language.md)** — respect the project's language setting
+
+## Key Rules
+
+- **Large file handling**: If the Write tool fails due to file size, immediately retry using Bash (`cat << 'EOF' > file`) to write in chunks. Do NOT ask the user for permission — just do it silently.
+
+- **Anchor first, every round.** Always carry forward the same Problem Anchor.
+- **One paper, one dominant contribution.** Avoid multiple parallel contributions unless the paper truly needs them.
+- **The smallest adequate mechanism wins.** Bigger is not automatically better.
+- **Prefer reuse over invention.** Start from strong existing backbones and add only what the bottleneck requires.
+- **Modern techniques are a prior, not a decoration.** Use LLM / VLM / Diffusion / RL-era components when they sharpen the method, not when they only make the proposal sound trendy.
+- **Minimal experiments.** Inside this skill, experiments only need to prove the core claims.
+- **Review the mechanism, not the parts count.** A long module list is not novelty.
+- **Pushback is encouraged.** If reviewer feedback causes drift or unnecessary complexity, argue back with evidence.
+- **ALWAYS use `reasoning_effort: xhigh`** for all Codex review calls.
+- **Save `agent_id` from Phase 2** and use `send_input` for later rounds.
+- **Do not fabricate results.** Only describe expected evidence and planned experiments.
+- **Be specific about compute and data assumptions.** Vague "we'll train a model" is not enough.
+- **Document everything.** Save every raw review, every anchor check, every simplicity check, and every major method change.
+
+## Composing with Other Skills
+
+This skill sits between idea discovery and execution:
+
+```
+/research-refine-pipeline              -> one-shot refine + experiment planning
+/idea-creator "direction"       -> candidate ideas
+/research-refine "PROBLEM: ... | APPROACH: ..."  <- you are here
+/experiment-plan                -> detailed experiment roadmap
+/run-experiment                 -> execute the chosen method
+/auto-review-loop               -> iterate on results and paper
+```
+
+Typical flow:
+
+1. `/idea-creator` or local reading gives you a problem and a vague method direction
+2. `/research-refine` turns that into an anchored, elegant, frontier-aware method plan
+3. `/experiment-plan` turns the final proposal into a detailed claim-driven experiment roadmap
+4. `/research-refine-pipeline` is the one-shot wrapper when the user wants both stages in a single request
+5. `/run-experiment` executes the chosen runs
+6. Later loops operate on results, not just ideas
+
+This skill also works standalone if you already know the problem and just need the method to become concrete.