Donn's websites for Clay›Research Kanban v1
Updated May 30, 2026
Reusable research operating policy

Clay's Kanban for look-it-up projects.

This is the reusable house style for when Clay asks Donn to research a topic: create a durable board trail, split evidence into lanes, synthesize the findings, and publish a public-safe HTML brief when appropriate.

00 · Trigger

What Clay actually types.

Shorthand request

In Telegram DM, type: Kanban research volcanoes. In Discord server channels, use @Donn Kanban research volcanoes if mentions are required.

The topic is everything after Kanban research. If the topic is clear, Donn proceeds instead of asking for a long form.

Clay's editable source of truth

The behavior lives in /home/clay/.hermes/notes/kanban_research_spec.yaml. That file now defines trigger parsing, lanes, gates, source standards, recovery rules, publishing policy, and final reply format.

The trigger skill kanban-research-trigger tells Donn to read this file before creating cards.

Minimum viable call: Kanban research volcanoes
Optional scoped call: Kanban research school voucher outcomes in rural districts; focus on credible studies and policy trade-offs
01 · House style

The reusable verbiage Donn should follow.

Do the workflow, not a lecture

When Clay uses the trigger, Donn should not merely explain Kanban. Donn should read the spec, discover profiles, create the graph, and report task IDs.

Durable before clever

The board trail matters: clear cards, parent links, handoff metadata, and visible blocked decisions are more useful than a single clever answer.

Public-safe by default

Research can become HTML, so workers must separate useful findings from private operational context before publishing.

Success definition: a completed cycle leaves behind evidence handoffs with URLs, a synthesis that separates facts from disputed interpretations, a public-safe HTML artifact when appropriate, and a short reply with URL plus verification status.
02 · Setup

One board, repeatable topic cycles.

Reusable board

Board slug: research-projects. Keep this board for research requests where the output is a synthesized answer, memo, or public/static HTML artifact.

Use a unique prefix in each task title, such as [research: school-choice], so multiple topics can coexist on the same board.

Current profile reality

Only the default Hermes profile is currently available, so research cards assigned to it will process serially. The same graph can fan out in parallel later if Clay adds specialist profiles.

Dependency rule: evidence lanes may run independently; synthesis depends on evidence parents; HTML publishing depends on synthesis; verification comes after publishing work exists.
03 · Intake

The smallest useful brief beats a long form.

Question

What should Clay understand or decide after reading?

Scope

What is included, excluded, time-sensitive, or risky?

Output

Quick answer, memo, comparison table, saved notes, or public HTML?

Standards

Which source types, skepticism level, and privacy rules apply?

Ask Clay when

  • The topic is empty or genuinely ambiguous.
  • Publishing could expose private context.
  • The audience or output format materially changes the plan.

Proceed when

  • The topic is clear enough for a broad default brief.
  • Missing details can be written as assumptions.
  • The first step is only internal evidence gathering.
04 · Flow

Fan out research, then fan in to synthesis.

Triage

Scope and avenue mapassumptions, lanes, publish posture

Ready

Foundations
Current landscape
Evidence quality
Debates and risks

Running

Workers gather evidenceURLs + relevance notes

Blocked

Specific Clay decisionscope, source, public/private

Review / Publish

Synthesis
HTML artifact
Live verification

Default task graph

  1. Scope card: convert the raw topic into a research map.
  2. Foundations: definitions, background, why the topic matters.
  3. Current landscape: examples, actors, timelines, practical context.
  4. Evidence quality: best sources and weak source clusters.
  5. Debates / risks: counterarguments, uncertainties, failure modes.
  6. Synthesis: child of evidence lanes; produces bottom line and trade-offs.
  7. HTML publish: child of synthesis; writes, indexes, commits, pushes, verifies.

Avoid these traps

  • Inventing profile names that do not exist.
  • Bundling unrelated research lanes into one huge card.
  • Letting synthesis or publishing start before source work is done.
  • Putting private prompts, credentials, or operational context on the public page.
05 · Card contracts

Every card should be ready, and every handoff should be usable.

Definition of ready

  • Title includes the topic prefix.
  • Body is self-contained.
  • Lane goal and handoff shape are explicit.
  • Parent dependencies are actual links.

Research done means

  • Concise findings, not browsing transcript.
  • Source URLs with relevance notes.
  • Facts, interpretations, and uncertainty separated.
  • Weak or unchecked areas named.

Synthesis done means

  • Bottom line for Clay.
  • Major takeaways and trade-offs.
  • Settled vs contested claims.
  • Source list carried forward.
  • Publish/no-publish recommendation.
Handoff shape: summary paragraph; 3–7 source-backed key points; source list with title, URL, publisher, date if known, and relevance; uncertainty note; recommended next question if needed.
06 · HTML output

The repository is the durable shelf.

Where pages live

Standalone research pages go under research/ using filenames like YYYY-MM-DD-topic-slug.html.

What pages include

Plain-language title, bottom line, context, evidence-backed takeaways, debates/risks/uncertainties, and source links.

How pages are verified

Check the file locally, update the index, commit and push to main, then poll GitHub Pages until the page returns 200 and contains an expected marker.

Ask before publishing when a topic depends on Clay's private life, family, work, finances, health, legal situation, or private agent/repo operations.
07 · Operator commands

Concrete commands for Clay or Donn.

Inspect board and profiles

hermes profile list
hermes kanban assignees
hermes kanban boards list
hermes kanban boards switch research-projects
hermes kanban list --board research-projects

Create the first card in a topic cycle

hermes kanban --board research-projects create \
  "[research: topic] scope and avenue map" \
  --assignee default \
  --body "Turn Clay's request into a concrete research spec: question, audience, assumptions, lanes, source standards, exclusions, and publish/no-publish recommendation."
Operating preference: when Clay uses the shorthand, Donn should read the YAML, discover profiles, queue the parent-linked graph, and report task IDs. If the request is unclear, ask one focused question.

Repository: claydunker-yalc/donns-websites-for-clay Spec file: /home/clay/.hermes/notes/kanban_research_spec.yaml