Finding
Hermes research can move faster than its evidence trail, leaving recommendations that are hard to verify after the session ends.
Current
A Hermes installation can search the web, extract pages, delegate research scouts, and summarize findings quickly. The weak point is usually not access to information; it is source discipline. If major claims are not tied to URLs, documents, or local artifact paths, later operators cannot tell which conclusions are grounded, which are inferred, and which need re-checking.
Suggested
- Require a source map for serious research outputs. Exact change: Add a
Sources usedorSource mapsection to the research report template in the research wiki, with columns for claim, URL or file path, source type, retrieval date, and confidence. - Make recurring research jobs cite before they summarize. Exact change: Update research-related cron prompts to say: “Before the final summary, list the URLs or file paths actually used; every major recommendation must cite one of them, and unsupported claims must be labeled unverified.”
- Add citation QA to the research workflow skill. Exact change: Patch the
research-workflowskill or equivalent runbook so the QA/Critic step checks that each major claim has a source, source quality is acceptable, stale sources are flagged, and recommendations are separated from documented facts.
Impact
This turns web research into reusable operational evidence instead of one-off chat prose. It reduces the risk of confident hallucinations entering implementation plans, dashboards, or public documentation. It also makes future updates cheaper, because the next agent can re-open the source map instead of rediscovering the entire research path.
Effort
Small — this is mostly template, skill, and cron-prompt discipline. It does not require new infrastructure, only a stricter reporting habit and a lightweight verification pass.
Public page note
Safe public content includes the achievement meaning, the rule that major claims need citations, generic source-map examples, and maturity recommendations for research workflows. Internal-only content includes private research notes, raw chat excerpts, session logs, credentials, unpublished implementation details, customer data, and exact internal URLs or file contents.