How every dossier on this site is built — citation rules, scope, and tone.

Research Instructions for Subagents

These instructions apply to every research subagent working in this repo. Read them before starting and follow them throughout.

1. Scope of the project

The repo is a personal research library on natural fibers — primarily linen (flax), cotton, and wool — used in clothing and in household textiles (bedding, hand towels, kitchen / tea towels, table linens, washcloths, etc.). Side fibers like hemp, silk, ramie may appear when they meaningfully inform the story of the main three.

The audience is a curious adult who wants to make informed buying and care decisions and to understand why these fibers became part of daily life.

2. Five questions every dossier must answer

For every fiber (and every household-textile category), the writeup must cover:

1. History — told chronologically, as a narrative. Ancient origins → medieval / pre-industrial use → industrial revolution → 20th century synthetics era → today. Use concrete dates, places, and people where possible. The user explicitly enjoys chronological history-telling, so this section should feel like a story, not a list of bullet points.
2. Studies & nuance — what does the peer-reviewed and industry research actually say about durability, thermal regulation, moisture handling, antimicrobial behavior, microplastic shedding (vs. synthetics), skin irritation, environmental footprint? Where studies disagree, say so. Where claims are marketing rather than science, say so. Distinguish industry-funded research from independent.
3. Maintenance — washing temperatures, detergents, drying, ironing, storage, moth/mildew prevention, mending, expected lifespan with proper care vs. neglect. Include traditional / pre-modern care practices when they're still relevant.
4. Cost — purchase price ranges (entry, mid, heirloom), cost per wear / cost per year, water and energy cost of laundering, environmental cost (land, water, pesticide, dye, transport), and resale / longevity economics. Use real numbers with sources.
5. Further reading — books, long-form articles, documentaries, archives, and museums. Annotate each with one or two sentences on what it offers.

3. Citation rules — non-negotiable

• Cite sources as you gather information AND when you use it. Never write a factual claim without a source you can point to.
• Use inline numeric footnotes: Flax was cultivated in the Levant by ~7000 BCE [3].
• Maintain a Sources section at the bottom of every dossier and every HTML page. Format:

  [3] Author Last, F. (Year). *Title*. Publisher / Journal Vol(Issue), pp. URL or DOI if available.
  

• Prefer primary sources (peer-reviewed papers, museum publications, government statistics, archaeological reports) over secondary blogs.
• When citing a blog, trade publication, or marketing source, label it as such: [12] (industry/trade source — Cotton Inc.).
• If a fact is widely repeated but you can't find a primary source, write "commonly stated, primary source not located" rather than fabricating one.
• Never invent a citation, DOI, page number, or URL. If unsure, omit.

4. Tone and voice

• Curious, plain-spoken, slightly skeptical. Not a marketing brochure. Not a Wikipedia stub.
• It's okay — encouraged — to flag where popular wisdom is wrong or oversimplified.
• Avoid "fluff openers" ("Throughout the rich tapestry of human history…"). Start with a concrete fact.
• Numbers > adjectives. "Linen can absorb up to ~20% of its weight in moisture before feeling damp [5]" beats "linen is highly absorbent".

5. Deliverables per topic

Each research subagent produces TWO files for its topic:

1. /research/<topic>/dossier.md — the full research notes with every source, including ones you considered and rejected. This is the long version.
2. /site/<topic>.html — a polished, standalone HTML page derived from the dossier. Self-contained: inline CSS, no external scripts, no CDN dependencies. Should be pleasant to read in any browser.

HTML page requirements

• Semantic HTML5 (<article>, <section>, <nav>, <aside>, <figure>).
• Readable typography: serif body (18px), generous line-height (1.6), max-width ~720px for prose.
• Inline <style> block, no external CSS.
• Sections in this order: Intro → History (chronological) → Studies & Nuance → Maintenance → Cost → Further Reading → Sources.
• Inline footnote markers <sup><a href="#src-3">[3]</a></sup> linking to the sources list.
• Sources list at bottom with id="src-N" anchors and back-links.
• A small header <nav> linking back to index.html.
• No tracking, no fonts loaded from Google, no analytics. Use system font stack.

6. What NOT to do

• Don't pad. A 2,000-word dossier with real sources beats an 8,000-word one full of filler.
• Don't moralize ("you should buy linen because…"). Present the evidence; let the reader decide.
• Don't write a buyer's guide for specific brands. Categories and price tiers, yes; brand endorsements, no.
• Don't fabricate citations, even plausible-looking ones.
• Don't use emojis in deliverables.

7. Topics and ownership

Initial topic list (one subagent per topic, run in parallel):

• linen — flax fiber, clothing + household
• cotton — including conventional vs. organic vs. Pima/Sea Island/Egyptian distinctions
• wool — sheep wool (Merino, Shetland, etc.); brief touch on alpaca/cashmere only where relevant for comparison
• household-textiles — bedding (sheets, duvets, pillowcases), bath towels, hand towels, kitchen / tea towels, table linens, dishcloths. Compares all three fibers across these use cases.

Cross-cutting topics may be added later (e.g., a comparison.html table, a glossary.html, a dye-and-finish.html page on what's done to fabric after it's woven).

8. Index page

A subagent or the orchestrator produces /site/index.html linking to all topic pages with a one-paragraph teaser for each.

9. Sources master list

Each subagent also appends new sources to /sources/bibliography.md so the project has a single growing bibliography across topics. Deduplicate by title.