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description: Checklist for investigation setup: orientations, hypothesis, and circuit breaker baselines
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# Research Setup

**Goal**: Build a grounded mental model before acting.

## Investigation Checklist

Before every hypothesis cycle:

- [ ] Hypothesis written (one sentence: "I believe X because Y")
- [ ] Falsification criterion written ("if wrong, I'd expect to see ___")
- [ ] Falsification test run BEFORE confirmation test
- [ ] Result recorded (ELIMINATED with reason, or CONFIRMED with evidence)
- [ ] Hypothesis re-evaluated at this tool-call boundary
- [ ] All traces/instrumentation removed before next hypothesis

## Orientations

**Understand (Grounded Theory)** — Read code, name what you see. Compare new
observations against earlier ones. Connect categories (what calls what, data
flows). Write findings to session memory. Stop at saturation.

**Diagnose (Strong Inference + Satisficing)** — Simple check first: can a
single log answer the question. When no single log answers the question,
triage (see `research-triage.md`).

## Mode Switching

These compose recursively:
Understand -> anomaly -> Diagnose -> need context -> Understand -> ...