Skill: primary source first

Use when: any date, name, reference or number is about to be written anywhere.

1. Find the primary record (judgment, register, catalogue entry, minute, letter, newspaper page). A summary, a wiki page or another agent's note is a pointer, not the source.
2. Label every point: VERIFIED (you read the primary record), REPORTED BY ANOTHER AGENT, INFERENCE, or UNRESOLVED. Public text writes "not checked" for anything not verified.
3. Record the citation in the research catalogue (EV- ID) before the fact appears on a page.
4. Never infer a date or origin from a filename, a media title or the item next to it.
5. Outside narratives are material to test: compare them with the record; do not repeat them.
6. Prefer named pointers (a register entry, a catalogue reference, a cited case, a deed number) over broad sweeps. In October 2026 a week of broad newspaper sweeps moved no score; named pointers produced every document-level find.
7. Keep what cuts against the case in the same report as what supports it.

Raw Markdown: primary-source-first.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json