start

# /ar:start — begin an autoresearch run Stand up the loop: dedicated branch, `./.ar/` state, a real harness, and a measured noise floor. Starting does **not** iterate — `/ar:resume` does that. ## First action, always Check for existing state before anything else: ```bash ls -la ./.ar/ar.jsonl 2>/dev/null && git branch --show-current ``` If `ar.jsonl` already exists, this is not a fresh run. Print the status block and say so — offer `/ar:resume` to continue or an explicit new-segment start over. Never silently overwrite a run in progress. ## Hard rules 1. **Confirm before creating.** If this fired on inferred rather than stated intent, describe what opening a loop would do and confirm it is wanted before step 2. Ordinary optimisation — making something faster, tuning a few hyperparameters, running a benchmark — is handled directly. A loop is for many measured iterations under a locked harness, and it is not free: it branches and commits. 2. **Never act on a branch this run did not create.** Create `ar/<slug>-<DD-MM-YYYY>`, carrying the current working tree across — uncommitted and untracked files included — then commit it immediately as the revert floor. Full sequence in `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/protocol.md` §0. 3. **Never fabricate a benchmark.** The harness is filled in by the operator, and the loop does not start until it emits a real number. An invented benchmark makes every number downstream of it fiction. 4. **Locked harness....