research-infrastructure
the overarching system that holds:
as well as connecting to my obsidian vault and the website (the phd-live platform)
progess and updates kept here: system-map
the obsidian vault acts a basis that feeds into an intrinsic shared-context-layer which acts as additional contextual information for all components of the research infrastructure.
most recent diagram
following session 2026-04-17, the ‘research infrastructure’ was born.
Research / knowledge infrastructure: key decisions
(Off-the-shelf options (LibreChat, AnythingLLM, Chainlit) don’t accommodate the non-chat interaction paradigms that I am interested in exploring).
general logic - don’t build ‘plumbing’ that already exists; but build the interface layer myself
The three bots (planned so far)
- Supervisor bot — structured critique, accountability, session-based. v1.5 working.
- Study companion — exploratory thinking, document-aware, peer/interlocutor role.
- Confidence bot — public presence agent. Reads notes, proposes shares, approval
step retained. Most conceptually distinctive -> next to build?
These map onto three modes of cognitive/emotional labour in PhD research. -> This is worth naming explicitly in the thesis framing.
shared context layer
One vector store (ChromaDB or SQLite + embeddings), one query API, all bots consume it. Sequence: watcher → embed → query endpoint → wire supervisor bot → build confidence bot on top. Chunk by Obsidian heading structure.
(RAG-compatible by design; fuller retrieval can be added later as extension).
learning dashboard
Shell first (navigation + activity feed), which can become knowledge layer second.
I will let real usage generate signal before designing potential context features of this dashboard.
Document this sequencing decision - the reasoning is important research material (ie. why starting from shell first, seeing what emerges as I use it before adding more features)
Activity log (exists only on phd-live site? or also on the learning dashboard)
Three distinct things, kept separate:
- Session record — structured log per bot interaction (local store)
- Research diary layer — interpretive, themes, trajectory (future)
- Public feed — curated subset surfaced to PhD-Live (separate concern)
Open questions
- Does the learning dashboard become a context source for bots, and when?
- What is the “shareable” threshold logic for Confidence Bot?
- Does the activity log feed PhD-Live automatically or via curation?
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