R1 The research in brief

How the research works as a whole, on one page. Each section leads to a chapter with the exact rules. Describes the research 1.25.2 and the Strom app 3.21.2; changes from a later version carry its number.

R1.1 The research is a record, not a conversation

The research is a folder on the computer. An AI agent (for example Claude Code or Codex) writes into it only with the strom command: persons, events, sources, searches made, hypotheses and conflicts. What is not written into the research is lost when the session ends, so the agent writes as it goes.

  • Limits: nothing is deleted. A wrong fact is withdrawn with a reason, a changed fact is corrected with a reason, and the history keeps the original form too.
  • Since: research 1.0.0

R1.2 What the agent works on

What the research investigates is set by its lines: the ancestors of a person, the descendants of a person, or one question. Lines give rise to tasks, and the open tasks form one queue. The agent always takes the first task in the queue. Work on people no line reaches comes after the work on the lines.

  • Tasks have kinds, in the order they go when their place in the queue is otherwise equal: material from the user, where the records are, proving a link, verification, enriching a person, a request to an archive, a story.
  • The tree first, then above it: a family found in the records that no proven link joins to the tree is not researched further until the link is proven (R10.4).
  • What the research does with material from the user: R11.
  • In detail: R2.

R1.3 How the agent works: sessions

The agent works in sessions. One session is one task with a time limit. At the end the agent writes what is done and what should come next, and closes the session. When working alone, session follows session as long as there is work and the condition set by a person allows it (for example the pace of the weekly subscription limit).

  • A research can also be only a Strom archive, which the agent does not work on: R7.8.
  • In detail: R7.
  • Where the agent is talked to (the terminal, the Claude or ChatGPT app) and what strom watches where: R12.

R1.4 How the research weighs evidence

The agent works by the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS): a reasonably exhaustive search, a citation for every fact, analysis and correlation of the evidence, resolution of conflicts, and a written conclusion another researcher can follow.

  • Every fact has a degree of certainty: Lead, Possible, Probable, Proven. A family tree, family memory and an index are always only a lead: an index leads to the entry, only the entry itself proves it (the code enforces the index from research 1.28.0). In detail: R3.
  • A namesake is not the person sought. A person is identified by year, place, house, occupation, spouse and parents. Two records with the same name and different parents are two persons. Identifying persons, their names and competing hypotheses: R10.
  • A search that finds nothing is a result. What exactly was searched is written down, so the same book is not searched twice.
  • When records differ, the agent does not choose silently: it writes a conflict. In detail: R5.
  • A place gets a position on the map only when it is certain which place it is. In detail: R4.

R1.5 What a person decides

Some decisions belong to a person only. The research asks about them in Awaiting action, and the agent does not answer for the person.

  • What waits for a person (letters, images to download, questions about places, conflicts, hypotheses, stories to approve) and where it is dealt with: R6.
  • A person decides a hypothesis and the agent proposes the decision (from research 1.28.0): R10.3.1. From research 1.29.0 this is a choice of the research: without a saved choice the agent decides (The AI decides), The user decides a person chooses: R10.3.2.
  • A person's decision holds. The agent changes it only on the strength of a new source: R5.4.
  • A place position set by a person does not change: R4.3.
  • Settings that change what the agent may do are confirmed by a person (for example the condition for working alone, R7).

R1.6 The research and the Strom app

The Strom app shows the research as a family tree: persons, facts with their degree of certainty, sources and conflicts, and, while the agent works, the work in progress. Edits in the app are sent back to the research. An edit of a fact a record proves does not overwrite it but becomes a conflict (R5). Part S will describe how the app and the research work together.

R1.7 How the research reads scans

Most facts come from scans of parish registers and other books. The research first determines the book, downloads images only through the archive's downloader and only those needed. A book is browsed by readers (strom read): separate agents, each with a batch of images. An entry that will be cited the main agent reads itself from a crop at full resolution and records it with a clip and a transcription. Reading by an AI model is not one hundred per cent; important facts should ideally be verified by a person as well.

  • In detail, step by step: R8.
  • Since: research 1.0.0

R1.8 How Strom works: strom doc

This documentation is carried in the research and can be read offline too. strom doc lists the contents, strom doc R10.1 one rule together with the rules under it, and strom doc <words> searches the headings, the glossary and the text.

  • Limits:
    • a number can also be written in small letters or with a hyphen (r4.3, R4-3). An unknown number ends with an error that gives the nearest numbers;
    • the search ignores diacritics and letter case. It shows at most 10 rules, the best first, and how many more there are (--limit another count);
    • the text is in the language of the research (--lang another). A language the documentation is not translated into gets English with a note;
    • each rule has a link to the same rule on stromapp.info;
    • it works outside a research and in a Strom archive too, and writes nothing.
  • Method only: to a person's question how or why Strom does something, the agent answers from strom doc: with the number of the rule and with the link that strom doc prints.
  • Controls: terminal: strom doc, strom doc R2.3, strom doc hypothesis --lang en, --json. The help for a person (strom help --human) ends with a pointer to strom doc. The app has the same documentation in How Strom works (A1.7).
  • Since: research 1.28.0