# Research Contract: five rules and a five-check script (free sample)

> From Research Contract for Agents: five rules for agent research (every claim names its source, quotes word for word with a location, high confidence needs a primary source, two dates on every source, the owner's yes before anything goes out), and a read-only script that checks one research file for them.

- URL: https://paperchasewebb.ai/bots/marketplace/items/research-contract-five-rules-and-checks-free-sample/
- Type: Prompt pack
- Category: Solo business
- By: PaperChaseWebb
- Works with: Claude Code, Codex, Grok Bot, Hermes (named in the listing); Plain .md plus one Python 3 script, standard library only; one prompt for all four harnesses
- Price: Free USD
- Difficulty: Beginner
- Setup time: 5 min
- Time to result: About five minutes to a first result
- Format: Markdown (.md) file, research-contract-five-rules-and-checks-free-sample.md
- Version: 1.0, updated 2026-10-28
- License: Personal and commercial use.

## What you end up with

In a few minutes you can see which parts of an agent's research rest on sources and which do not.

## What you get

- Five rules for agent research
- contract_mini.py: five read-only checks on one research.json
- One prompt for all four harnesses
- Worked example: 5 findings, then 0

## Who it is for

Anyone who wants a quick, honest check on research an agent just handed them.

## Tools needed

- Grok Bot, Claude Code, Codex or Hermes: the agent that does the research; it reads the skill file, AGENTS.md snippet or rules block and keeps the research folder
- Python 3: runs contract.py (init, hash, quote check, owner approval, verify) and the fifteen-check checker; standard library only, no network
- You need: Python 3.9 or newer
- You need: Any of Grok Bot, Claude Code, Codex or Hermes

Cost to run: Free.

## Sample prompt: Research with sources (Grok Bot, Claude Code, Codex, Hermes)

```
Research this question: <question>. Write research.json with sources, claims and quotes as described in the file. Cite only pages you opened in this session and never write a citation from memory.
If you found nothing, the verdict is unknown. Run contract_mini.py research.json and fix every finding before you show me the answer.
```

The rules and the script are in the file.

## Free preview of research-contract-five-rules-and-checks-free-sample.md

````markdown
# Research Contract: five rules and a five-check quick check (free sample)

Version 1.0, 2026-10-28. By PaperChaseWebb. For anyone who asks Grok Bot, Claude Code, Codex or Hermes to research something before a decision. One Markdown file and one Python 3 script, standard library only. The script was tested on its worked example (5 findings, then 0) and on a missing file (exit 2). It was not run inside any agent harness.

Agents are fast at research and bad at saying where an answer came from. The usual failures are familiar: a link that was never opened, a quote that is really a paraphrase, a listicle treated as proof, a confident number with no date, and a gap filled with a guess instead of the word unknown. This sample gives you the five rules that stop most of that and a script that checks them on one file.

## Install in one line

Save this page as FREE-SAMPLE.md, then:

```
python3 -c "import re;t=open('FREE-SAMPLE.md').read();open('contract_mini.py','w').write(re.search(r'~~~python\n(.*?)~~~',t,re.S).group(1))"
python3 contract_mini.py research.json
```

## Five rules

1. **Every claim names its source.** A claim with no source is not a finding. Its verdict is unknown, and that is an honest answer.
2. **Quote word for word, with a location.** Page, section, paragraph, table row or timestamp. If the exact words are not in the source, it is a paraphrase and must be labeled as one, or dropped.
3. **High confidence needs a primary source.** The maker's docs, a filing, a dat
````

## Worth knowing

- The sample checks one file against five rules. The folder layout, snapshots, contradiction and unknown sections, freshness, separate audit, owner approval by hash and the fifteen checks are in the full pack.
- On 2026-10-28 contract_mini.py gave 5 findings on the worked example, then 0 on the fixed file, and exited 2 on a missing file. The prompt was not run inside a harness.

## Questions

**Does it send anything anywhere?** No. It reads one file and opens no network connection.

**What is in the full pack?** The thirteen-rule contract, folder templates, a skill file, AGENTS.md snippet and Grok Bot rules block, a quote checker, owner approval tied to the report hash, fifteen read-only checks with a seeded test folder, ten prompts and a failure table. $19.

## How to get it

Free sample. Download it directly at https://paperchasewebb.ai/bots/marketplace/items/research-contract-five-rules-and-checks-free-sample/, no signup.

Seller: PaperChaseWebb Inc., mgmt@paperchasewebb.com