# Source Tiering & Authority Anchoring — Reference

## Source Tiers

| Tier | Source Type | Purpose | Credibility |
|------|------------|---------|-------------|
| **L1** | Official docs, papers, specs, RFCs | Definitions, mechanisms, verifiable facts | High |
| **L2** | Official blogs, tech talks, white papers | Design intent, architectural thinking | High |
| **L3** | Authoritative media, expert commentary, tutorials | Supplementary intuition, case studies | Medium |
| **L4** | Community discussions, personal blogs, forums | Discover blind spots, validate understanding | Low |

## L4 Community Source Specifics (mandatory for product comparison research)

| Source Type | Access Method | Value |
|------------|---------------|-------|
| **GitHub Issues** | Visit `github.com/<org>/<repo>/issues` | Real user pain points, feature requests, bug reports |
| **GitHub Discussions** | Visit `github.com/<org>/<repo>/discussions` | Feature discussions, usage insights, community consensus |
| **Reddit** | Search `site:reddit.com "<product_name>"` | Authentic user reviews, comparison discussions |
| **Hacker News** | Search `site:news.ycombinator.com "<product_name>"` | In-depth technical community discussions |
| **Discord/Telegram** | Product's official community channels | Active user feedback (must annotate [limited source]) |

## Principles

- Conclusions must be traceable to L1/L2
- L3/L4 serve only as supplementary and validation
- L4 community discussions are used to discover "what users truly care about"
- Record all information sources
- **Search broadly before searching deeply** — cast a wide net with multiple query variants before diving deep into any single source
- **Cross-domain search** — when direct results are sparse, search adjacent fields, analogous problems, and related industries
- **Never rely on a single search** — each sub-question requires multiple searches from different angles (synonyms, negations, practitioner language, academic language)

## Timeliness Filtering Rules (execute based on Step 0.5 sensitivity level)

| Sensitivity Level | Source Filtering Rule | Suggested Search Parameters |
|-------------------|----------------------|-----------------------------|
| Critical | Only accept sources within 6 months as factual evidence | `time_range: "month"` or `start_date` set to last 3 months |
| High | Prefer sources within 1 year; annotate if older than 1 year | `time_range: "year"` |
| Medium | Sources within 2 years used normally; older ones need validity check | Default search |
| Low | No time limit | Default search |

## High-Sensitivity Domain Search Strategy

```
1. Round 1: Targeted official source search
   - Use include_domains to restrict to official domains
   - Example: include_domains: ["anthropic.com", "openai.com", "docs.xxx.com"]

2. Round 2: Official download/release page direct verification (BLOCKING)
   - Directly visit official download pages; don't rely on search caches
   - Use tavily-extract or WebFetch to extract page content
   - Verify: platform support, current version number, release date

3. Round 3: Product-specific protocol/feature search (BLOCKING)
   - Search protocol names the product supports (MCP, ACP, LSP, etc.)
   - Format: "<product_name> <protocol_name>" site:official_domain

4. Round 4: Time-limited broad search
   - time_range: "month" or start_date set to recent
   - Exclude obviously outdated sources

5. Round 5: Version verification
   - Cross-validate version numbers from search results
   - If inconsistency found, immediately consult official Changelog

6. Round 6: Community voice mining (BLOCKING - mandatory for product comparison research)
   - Visit the product's GitHub Issues page, review popular/pinned issues
   - Search Issues for key feature terms (e.g., "MCP", "plugin", "integration")
   - Review discussion trends from the last 3-6 months
   - Identify the feature points and differentiating characteristics users care most about
```

## Community Voice Mining Detailed Steps

```
GitHub Issues Mining Steps:
1. Visit github.com/<org>/<repo>/issues
2. Sort by "Most commented" to view popular discussions
3. Search keywords:
   - Feature-related: feature request, enhancement, MCP, plugin, API
   - Comparison-related: vs, compared to, alternative, migrate from
4. Review issue labels: enhancement, feature, discussion
5. Record frequently occurring feature demands and user pain points

Value Translation:
- Frequently discussed features -> likely differentiating highlights
- User complaints/requests -> likely product weaknesses
- Comparison discussions -> directly obtain user-perspective difference analysis
```

## Source Registry Entry Template

For each source consulted, immediately append to `01_source_registry.md` (or the appropriate category file under `01_source_registry/` if the artifact has been split — see splittable-artifacts convention in `steps/00_project-integration.md`):
```markdown
## Source #[number]
- **Title**: [source title]
- **Link**: [URL]
- **Tier**: L1/L2/L3/L4
- **Publication Date**: [YYYY-MM-DD]
- **Timeliness Status**: Currently valid / Needs verification / Outdated (reference only)
- **Version Info**: [If involving a specific version, must annotate]
- **Target Audience**: [Explicitly annotate the group/geography/level this source targets]
- **Research Boundary Match**: Full match / Partial overlap / Reference only
- **Summary**: [1-2 sentence key content]
- **Related Sub-question**: [which sub-question this corresponds to]
```

## Target Audience Verification (BLOCKING)

Before including each source, verify that its target audience matches the research boundary:

| Source Type | Target audience to verify | Verification method |
|------------|---------------------------|---------------------|
| **Policy/Regulation** | Who is it for? (K-12/university/all) | Check document title, scope clauses |
| **Academic Research** | Who are the subjects? (vocational/undergraduate/graduate) | Check methodology/sample description sections |
| **Statistical Data** | Which population is measured? | Check data source description |
| **Case Reports** | What type of institution is involved? | Confirm institution type |

Handling mismatched sources:
- Target audience completely mismatched -> do not include
- Partially overlapping -> include but annotate applicable scope
- Usable as analogous reference -> include but explicitly annotate "reference only"
