Sleuth #
Sleuth is the research platter's source-and-search index: a compact record of where a lead can be searched, which mechanism reaches it, what the browser or collection skill contributes, and what evidence should be retained.
This is an index, not a crawler. Search results are leads; a source is only confirmed after opening the primary page or file and recording its stable URL, identifier, title, creator, date, access state, and the claim it supports.
Routing #
- Start with
sources.jsonand choose the narrowest source that can answer the question. - Search the source directly when a general web search is incomplete. This is essential for sparse video pages, old archives, and private collections.
- Use browser inspection for pages whose useful state is visual or interactive.
- Keep private-vault paths and tokens out of published notes. Record the public citation and a local provenance note instead.
- Add the stable identifier to the working paper bibliography or evidence log.
Source index #
| Source | Mechanism | Skill / collection move | Evidence to keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vimeo | Direct URL/ID, Vimeo search, uploader pages, web search fallback | browser-use:browser; inspect title, uploader, description, player metadata, and numeric ID |
canonical Vimeo URL, video ID, uploader, duration, capture date |
| YouTube | YouTube search, Data API when authorized, channel/playlist pages | YouTube pipeline plus browser-use:browser for Studio/player state |
watch URL or video ID, channel, title, upload date |
| Internet Archive | Advanced Search, item pages, files/metadata API | browser + ffprobe/OCR/transcription for media |
item identifier, file name, checksum or archive URL |
| Dropbox vault | Dropbox API search and temporary links; never publish credentials | vault read, filename variants, media metadata, local inspection | Dropbox path, file name, size/date, local provenance; no token |
| Web archives | Wayback/CDX and page snapshots | browser; compare capture dates and linked media | archived URL, capture timestamp, original URL |
| Scholarly indexes | Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, library catalogs | DOI/title/author disambiguation, then primary-source retrieval | DOI or catalog ID, edition, publisher, access date |
| Institutional archives | University, museum, festival, and venue pages | browser; event-program and embedded-media inspection | institution URL, event date, venue, speaker, media link |
| Papers platter | paper_list, paper_find, paper_read, local manifests |
consult SCORE, sub-platter README/manifest, prior bibliography | consulted files, revision/date, provenance gap |
Video-specific rule #
Do not infer identity from a generic title. For a video such as a page titled
“GOODIEPAL”, search by the numeric Vimeo ID, uploader, related event, and local
archive filenames (Goodiepal.mp4, lecture, radical, venue names). A short
clip and a longer source should be linked as separate evidence items.
Browser and collection skills #
browser-use:browseris the visual/browser inspection route for live pages, local previews, screenshots, and interactive state.- The web search connector is a discovery route, not a completeness guarantee.
- Dropbox and other vault connectors are private collection routes; they may locate evidence but do not authorize publishing private material.
- Media inspection uses the repository QoS shims (
ffprobe,ffmpeg) and preserves the original file path or stable remote identifier in notes.
See sources.json for machine-readable routing data.