prior-art

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# Prior art

Topic: $ARGUMENTS

Configured sources, in order:
!`${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/settings.sh sources 2>&1 || true`

Prior art is anything that already settles part of the topic: earlier designs, docs, code, existing beads, or knowledge that lives outside the repository. Find it, report it, and change nothing: no beads, no commits, no files.

`--local` means: the configured sources, the repository and its beads only. Skip step 4.

## 1. Form the queries

From the topic, before searching, write down:
- a **term list**: the domain nouns, plus the repository's own words for them (glossary, README) and one synonym each
- a **sentence**: what the topic does, in one line, for semantic search
- the **symbols and paths** it names, if any

## 2. Find the routes

Each kind of search answers one kind of question and takes one kind of query. Look for tools in your context, then through tool search with `search`, `semantic`, `index`, `graph`, `ast` and `read`. Route by question:

| Question | Route | Query | Fallback when no such tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Was this designed or discussed before? | full-text search over docs and beads; semantic search if present | the term list; the sentence for semantic | text search under the docs directories; `bd search` |
| Where does the code do this? | semantic or code search | the sentence | text search on the terms |
| What touches this symbol or file? | code graph | the symbol or path | text search on the symbol |
| Every place a pattern occurs? | structural or AST search | a pattern | text search with a regex |
| What is in this large file? | bulk reader | a question | `sed -n` |

Index-backed routes first, in parallel, one query each. Text search only for what they miss or when no such tool is installed: the harness's own search tool when it has one, else `rg`, else `grep`.

## 3. Search, in this order

1. **Configured sources**, in the order listed above. Each is consented by configuration: search it without asking, in a headless session too. `via: path` is a directory, searched with the local routes whether or not it is inside the repository. Any other `via` is a word for tool search; when no tool matches it, the source is unreachable: say so in the `Searched` line and under open questions, and move on. `holds` says what the source can answer; skip it for questions it can't.
2. **The repository**: earlier designs in `docs/design/` and the repository's own convention, such as `docs/adr/`, `specs/`, `rfcs/` or `design/`; `README*` and other docs; the code the topic touches: entry points, data formats, public interfaces, config. Skim; don't read everything.
3. **Beads**, if the repository uses them. Read-only commands only: `bd search <terms>` once per term set, `bd list --type epic`, `bd show <id>` on hits.
4. **Other external sources**, ask first (below): MCP servers such as wikis, Notion, Google Drive, Confluence, issue trackers, chat, mail; skills and commands that fetch knowledge; web search. Find them through tool search with `notion`, `drive`, `wiki`, `confluence`, `jira`, `slack`, `web`. Web search comes last, and only for a question steps 1 to 3 leave open that the web can settle, such as a library's behaviour or a standard; never for the project's own history.

Links given in the topic are always read.

### Ask before using other external sources

- **When you can ask:** use one AskUserQuestion (`multiSelect`) listing the external sources that look relevant to this topic. For each option, say what you would look for there. Offer at most 4; group similar sources if there are more. Consult only the sources the user selects. Then offer, in a second question, to save the selected ones as configured sources: shared ones in `.claude/sdlc.md`, this machine's paths in `.claude/sdlc.local.md`, one `sources:` entry each with `name`, `via`, `where`, `holds`. A saved source is consented for every later search.
- **When you cannot ask** (headless session): use only the external sources the topic names or links to. List the rest under open questions instead of consulting them.

## 4. Follow each hit one hop

A doc's links and its prior-art section. A bead's `metadata.design`, its parent and its last comments. A symbol's callers. Most prior art is found by reference, not by term.

## 5. Stop

Stop when a round of queries adds no new item.

## 6. Report

In the reply, in this form:

```markdown
## Prior art

- `path` | `bead:<id>` | `<source>:<title or url>`: what it establishes.

(or "No prior art.")

Searched: <routes run and the tools used>; sources: <configured sources consulted, and any unreachable one with why>; external: <other sources consulted, or none>.

Open questions: <sources not consulted and why, or none>.
```

Say what each item establishes, not how it relates to new work: whether to reuse, extend, replace or avoid it is the caller's decision.

From Igosuki/agentic-sdlc, MIT.

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