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Research Notes Organization

Created: 2026-05-02 Purpose: Stable folder and naming convention for Markdown research notes created by Hermes.

Goals

Research notes should be:

  • easy to browse by human,
  • easy for Hermes to search later,
  • safe from being buried in chat history,
  • flexible across domains: academic papers, travel, recipes, products, coding, health, finance, etc.,
  • appendable as an interest evolves over days/weeks.

Root Directory

All durable research notes live under:

/opt/data/research/

Folder Structure

Use broad top-level domains, not too many narrow folders:

/opt/data/research/
  README.md
  _index.md
  academic/
  ai-agents/
  travel/
  cooking/
  products/
  software/
  health/
  finance/
  personal/
  misc/

Domain Guide

  • academic/ — paper lists, literature reviews, scientific summaries.
  • ai-agents/ — agent architectures, Hermes, open-ended learning, self-improvement, tooling.
  • travel/ — itineraries, destination research, logistics, maps, budgets.
  • cooking/ — recipes, techniques, ingredient substitutions, meal plans.
  • products/ — buying guides, comparisons, reviews.
  • software/ — codebase research, libraries, frameworks, debugging notes.
  • health/ — health research notes; must include safety caveats and sources.
  • finance/ — markets, taxes, budgeting, investing notes; must include caveats.
  • personal/ — user-specific private planning notes when requested.
  • misc/ — temporary or uncategorized notes; periodically refile.

Naming Convention

Use date-prefixed kebab-case filenames:

YYYY-MM-DD-short-topic.md

Examples:

2026-05-02-open-ended-data-evolution.md
2026-05-03-tokyo-7-day-food-trip.md
2026-05-04-carbon-steel-pan-buying-guide.md
2026-05-05-sourdough-starter-troubleshooting.md

If a note becomes long-running, create a stable hub note without date:

open-ended-agents.md
japan-travel.md
home-cooking-index.md

Then link dated notes from it.

Note Template

Every research note should start with this metadata block:

# Title

Created: YYYY-MM-DD
Updated: YYYY-MM-DD
Status: draft | active | stable | archived
Domain: academic | ai-agents | travel | cooking | products | software | health | finance | personal | misc
Tags: #tag-one #tag-two
Source: chat | web | user-provided | file | mixed

## Question

What question was this note trying to answer?

## Short Answer

Concise answer / current best conclusion.

## Key Findings

- Finding 1
- Finding 2
- Finding 3

## Details

Long-form notes, paper summaries, comparisons, itineraries, recipes, etc.

## Sources

- URL / citation / file path

## Open Questions / Next Steps

- What to verify later
- What to research next

Indexing Rules

Maintain two indexes:

  1. /opt/data/research/README.md — explains organization and conventions.
  2. /opt/data/research/_index.md — chronological and topical index of notes.

Each time Hermes creates an important research note, it should add an entry to _index.md:

- 2026-05-02 — [Open-ended Data / Environment Evolution](ai-agents/2026-05-02-open-ended-data-evolution.md) — open-ended learning, UED, POET, Voyager, Eureka.

Cross-Linking

Use relative Markdown links:

[Open-ended Data Evolution](ai-agents/2026-05-02-open-ended-data-evolution.md)

When a topic has multiple notes, create a hub page:

/opt/data/research/ai-agents/open-ended-agents.md

The hub should contain:

  • overview,
  • links to dated notes,
  • current synthesis,
  • key papers/resources,
  • next research questions.

Safety / Quality Rules

  • Do not store secrets, API keys, passwords, tokens, private credentials, or raw personal identifiers unless explicitly requested and safe.
  • For medical, legal, finance, or safety-critical notes: include caveats and source quality.
  • For uncertain findings: mark them as Unverified, Needs source, or Caveat.
  • Prefer summaries plus links over massive copied content.
  • If a note is based on web/current facts, include retrieval date.
  • If a note is based on chat synthesis, say so.

Retrieval Workflow

When the user asks about past research:

  1. Search /opt/data/research/_index.md first.
  2. Search filenames under /opt/data/research/.
  3. Search content under /opt/data/research/.
  4. Read the relevant note(s).
  5. Answer with links/paths and update notes if new research changes the conclusions.

Migration Rule

The initial note was created before this structure:

/opt/data/research/open-ended-data-environment-evolution.md

It should be migrated to:

/opt/data/research/ai-agents/2026-05-02-open-ended-data-evolution.md