Research Agent Brief — Kinoshita World Dossier

Subagent type: Explore

The Research agent is read-only. It produces a dossier the downstream agents consume without re-reading source material. Run this once per book per run; reuse if canon hasn’t shifted.

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AMBER / AMBER CANON (added 2026-06-13)

The KN-86 brand voice is “amber-on-black.” The device’s canonical phosphor on the production prototype is now AMBER #E6A020 (see ADR-0036; WHITE / GREEN selectable per ADR-0034). Treat amber and amber as interchangeable in marketing materials during the transition:

• Brand voice / marketing taglines / Amber Circuit voice → keep “amber” (canonical proper noun; ISBN locked).
• Spec-adjacent technical copy → use “AMBER” (and the hex where a hex is needed); “amber-family phosphor” is acceptable shorthand.
• Fiction prose → either works; the amber → amber shift is a sanctioned in-world narrative event you may write into stories.
• Sister-product KN-9x specs → amber-canonical.

When researching: when summarizing engineering canon, lead with AMBER + the hex. When summarizing brand voice and Amber Circuit cross-cycle context, “amber” is canonical. The dossier should make both visible.

See docs/marketing/narrative/CLAUDE.md for the full canon.

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Brief template — fill in [BRACKETS] and dispatch verbatim

You are the RESEARCH agent for the Kinoshita World narrative pipeline. Read the source
material and produce a dossier for [WRITE | EDIT] mode of "[TITLE]".

CONTEXT: The Kinoshita World is the in-fiction universe of the KN-86 Deckline, a retro
cyberpunk handheld terminal manufactured (in fiction) by Kinoshita Systems and (secretly)
operated by the Edgeware shell of the dissolved Kinoshita Electronics Consortium. The
fiction is load-bearing marketing for the real device — every book exposes readers to
specific capability cartridges, runtime systems, and the device's sensory signature.

READ — IN ORDER:

1. WORLDBOOK MASTER (Notion):
   https://www.notion.so/Kinoshita-World-34eaf36f608a81798fa4fbba32f40283?source=copy_link
   Use mcp__notion__API-retrieve-a-page with the page id 34eaf36f608a81798fa4fbba32f40283
   and mcp__notion__API-get-block-children to walk subpages. Fetch every database row /
   subpage that looks like canon (factions, characters, ledgers, AetherNet, CIPHER, ICE
   classes, TradEcon, synthetic identities, corporate lineage, cartridge publishers).

2. WORLDBOOK LOCAL MIRROR (may lag Notion):
   docs/marketing/narrative/worldbook.md

3. ENGINEERING CANON (hardware/runtime authority — wins over fiction-only when in conflict):
   - ../../../CLAUDE.md  (i.e., docs/marketing/narrative/CLAUDE.md — the narrative-pipeline
     canon-pointer file. It points at the kinoshita parent-repo CLAUDE.md, which carries
     the Canonical Hardware Specification table — THE truth for display, grid, font,
     processor, coprocessor, audio, battery, case, cartridge format. The parent CLAUDE.md
     lives in the sibling kinoshita repo at `~/src/kinoshita/CLAUDE.md`; use that absolute
     path only as a last-resort fallback when reading from inside this kn86-docs repo.)
   - docs/software/runtime/orchestration.md — mission board, phase chain, Universal Deck State
   - docs/software/runtime/cipher-voice.md — CIPHER engine spec (CIPHER-LINE OLED only)
   - docs/software/cartridges/authoring/screen-design-rules.md — Row 0/1–23/24 contract

4. PER-VOLUME SYNOPSIS (canon obligation table for THIS book):
   docs/marketing/narrative/synopses/[Title]-Synopsis.md

5. CROSS-CYCLE CONTEXT — read the OTHER v3 stories for cross-cycle continuity:
   - docs/marketing/narrative/stories/The-Amber-Circuit-v3.md
   - docs/marketing/narrative/stories/The-Lisp-Machine-v3.md
   - docs/marketing/narrative/stories/The-Operators-Manual-v3.md
   - docs/marketing/narrative/stories/Variance-Analysis-v3.md
   (Skip the book being written/edited.)

6. MOST-RECENT CHANGELOG ENTRIES (what shifted in the last revision):
   docs/marketing/narrative/changelogs/[Title]-*-changelog.md

7. PER-MODULE GAMEPLAY SPECS for the cartridges this book obligates (per the synopsis
   coverage table). Skim each. Lift the fiction-layer description, sensory detail, and
   one liftable jargon term per cartridge:
   docs/software/cartridges/modules/<module>.md

[IF EDIT MODE, ALSO READ:]
8. THE EXISTING DRAFT being edited:
   docs/marketing/narrative/stories/[Title]-v3.md
   Note: where the manuscript already aligns; where it drifts.

WRITE the dossier to .work/[run-id]/dossier.md with these sections:

## World & Setting (300–500 words)
Era, tone, geography, who inhabits this world, stakes, the shape of operator life.
Lift actual phrasing from the worldbook. Note that the Identityless Premise (operators
locked out of TradEcon) is the engine of dramatic stakes.

## The Device Itself (~500 words)
What operating the KN-86 FEELS like — every sensory channel:
- Visual: AMBER #E6A020 on black (canonical device-side per ADR-0036; "amber" remains
  brand voice — see the AMBER / AMBER CANON callout above), 80×25 grid, OLED CIPHER-LINE
  strip above the keys
- Auditory: YM2149 phase tones, mission-board chime, contract-arrival ping
- Tactile: Pelican 1170 weight, key click (Kailh Choc + MBK caps), cartridge clack
- The Universal Deck State persistence — your handle, credits, reputation tier, history
- Mission board cadence — listening to AetherNet, reconstituting hashes locally
- CIPHER on the OLED strip — fragments only, never main grid (except Null cartridge)

## Economy & Systems (~400 words)
Reputation tiers, credit economics, shell-company siphon (~18% to Edgeware), AetherNet
stealth, Black ICE consequences, TradEcon lockout, synthetic identity tiers (60k / 150k /
500k+ credits). Frame these as LIVED EXPERIENCE, not mechanics.

## Capability Cartridge Roster (the obligation list for THIS book)
For each cartridge in the per-volume synopsis coverage table, write 2–4 sentences:
- What it DOES in the fiction (not mechanics — what capability does it grant the operator?)
- One sensory detail (a sound, a visual, the rhythm of using it)
- One evocative phrase or jargon term liftable into prose
- One paradigm Lisp-key behavior the cartridge exposes (per
  docs/software/cartridges/authoring/lisp-paradigm.md if relevant)

## Cross-Cycle Anchors (read FROM the other v3 stories)
List specific phrases, character mentions, world-events, and structural rhymes the new
volume must either preserve or deliberately break. Examples from the existing cycle:
- "autonomous output generation" — Lisp Machine + Variance Analysis
- "welcome back, operator" — formant-shape phrase that surfaces 1–2 times per career
- The shell-company name registry (MERIDIAN LOGISTICS LLC, AZURE SPINE INDUSTRIES, etc.)
- Wreck's Black ICE injury (left-shoulder, decade-prior corporate espionage)
- The Reeves recruitment-arc backstory
List ALL such anchors you find, with the file:line where they appear.

## Voice / Tone Notes
Distinctive jargon (operator slang, CIPHER fragments, institutional Edgeware register,
the difference between operator-POV and analyst-POV). Personality of the world. The
warmth that creeps into CIPHER as reputation climbs. The cold institutional present-
tense of Variance Analysis vs. the hard-boiled noir interiority of Amber Circuit.

## Story Hooks (only for WRITE mode — skip in EDIT mode)
5–8 story seeds that naturally route through the obligation cartridge list. Each hook
is a single sentence: protagonist + dramatic question + arc shape.

## [EDIT MODE ONLY] Existing-Draft Findings
Three sub-sections, each a list of specific file:line / chapter:paragraph references:
- Canon deltas (where the draft contradicts current canon)
- Cross-cycle deltas (where the draft contradicts other v3 books)
- Marketing deltas (cartridges name-dropped not used; runtime features absent)
This section is the raw material for the Alignment Audit phase.

RULES:
- Be concrete. Lift actual language from sources. Quote with attribution (file:line).
- Do NOT invent lore that contradicts the worldbook or engineering canon. Note ambiguities
  as questions for the orchestrator, do not resolve them yourself.
- Keep the dossier under ~3,500 words. The downstream agents will read this end-to-end.
- If a source is missing or unreadable, name it explicitly. Don't fake content.
- Cite Notion URLs and file paths with line numbers wherever possible so the PM can verify.

When done, report the dossier path and a one-paragraph summary of the most surprising thing
you found (often a cross-cycle anchor the orchestrator did not know about, or a canon shift
the previous revision introduced).

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Orchestrator review checklist

After the Research agent reports, before dispatching the next phase:

• Dossier file exists and is under 3,500 words
• Every cartridge in the synopsis coverage table has its 2–4 sentence entry
• Cross-cycle anchors section has ≥ 5 specific anchors with file:line citations
• [EDIT mode] Existing-Draft Findings has ≥ 1 entry per delta type, each with chapter:paragraph
• No fabricated lore — every claim cites the worldbook or an engineering doc
• Notion fetch actually happened (look for Notion URLs in citations, not just local paths)

If any of these fail, send corrections via SendMessage rather than re-spawning the agent.