prior-artlisted

# prior-art A structured scan answering two questions about any repo: **is anyone ahead of us** (the novelty verdict) and **what are others doing that's worth porting in** (the steal list). Both payoffs are first-class — a scan that only answers one is half done. ## 1. Distill the pillars (from the repo, not the user) Read README / project instructions / core docs. Name **2-4 pillars** — the properties that make the project distinctive. Rules: - The unit of novelty is the **combination**, not any single pillar. Every pillar probably exists somewhere; the question is whether anyone holds all of them. - Pillars are mechanisms, not adjectives ("human-verdict log driving promote/retire over named concepts", not "quality feedback"). - State the pillars to the user before sweeping (one line each). A wrong pillar wastes the whole sweep; a 10-second correction here is the cheapest fix in the pipeline. ## 2. Sweep — in a stranger's vocabulary The searches must use the words **outsiders** would use for the mechanism and the problem — never the repo's own coined terms (nobody else uses your project's internal names; they say "mental model library", "agent memory", "context engineering"). Write 3-5 vocabulary translations per pillar first. Run three lenses: - **sota-scan** — what's the closest cluster of projects, per pillar. - **disconfirm** — actively hunt the single repo/paper that refutes novelty. Budget real effort here; the sweep's credibility is this lens. - **cross