Source Shelf: five rules and a five-check script (free sample)
by PaperChaseWebb
From the Source Shelf: five rules for a small list of industry reports (one owner, link to the publisher not the post, dated and checked, three questions every time, every figure with its quote), and a read-only script that checks one small file for them.
- Price
- Free
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Setup
- 5 min
- Format
- .md file
source-shelf-five-rules-and-checks-free-sample.md · 9 KB · direct download, no signup
What you end up with
In a few minutes you can see whether the reports your team cites link to the publisher, carry an edition and a recent check, are read the same way, and have every figure backed by a quote.
What you get
- Five shelf rules
- shelf_mini.py: five read-only checks on one shelf-lite.json
- One prompt for all four harnesses
- Worked example: 5 findings, then 0
Who it is for
Anyone who wants a quick check on the reports they keep quoting.
Works with
Solid chips: the agent is named in this listing's own tools list. Dashed chip: Plain Markdown, so it also pastes into other agents such as Grok Bot, Hermes, OpenClaw or Muse. We list those as compatible by format only, not as tested.
Tools needed
Cost to run: Free.
Time to result: About five minutes to a first result
Sample prompts, free to use
Open the publisher's own page for [report series]. Tell me the current edition and the date it came out, exactly as the page shows them. If the report is behind a form, payment or sign-up, stop and tell me. Then read it and answer three questions: what is changing, who is struggling because of it, and what could help them. For the first two, copy the sentence from the report word for word with its page. Mark the third as your inference, with no figures. Put it in shelf-lite.json and run shelf_mini.py shelf-lite.json.
The rules and the script are in the file.
Free preview of the file
# Source Shelf: five rules and a five-check script (free sample)
Version 1.0, 2026-10-29. By PaperChaseWebb. For founders, consultants and small teams who keep citing the same few industry reports and want those citations current and traceable. 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 or on real reports.
Lists of "reports that will shape your next business idea" are everywhere. Most link to a post about the report instead of the report, give no edition, and say nothing about who paid for the research. A year later someone quotes last edition's figure, or a figure the report never printed. These five rules keep a small shelf honest, and the script checks them in one file. The reading method (what is changing, who is struggling, what could help them) comes from an IdeasLab Global post, credited in the full pack.
## Install in one line
Save this page as FREE-SAMPLE.md, then:
```
python3 -c "import re;t=open('FREE-SAMPLE.md').read();open('shelf_mini.py','w').write(re.search(r'~~~python\n(.*?)~~~',t,re.S).group(1))"
python3 shelf_mini.py shelf-lite.json
```
## Five rules
1. **One owner.** One person decides what goes on the shelf. Everyone else, agents included, suggests.
2. **Link to the publisher, not the post.** Every report links over https to the publisher's own site. A carousel, a thread or a summary blog is Test record
- Date
- Oct 29, 2026
- What was run
- shelf_mini.py on the worked example, a fixed file and a missing file.
- Result
- 5 findings, then 0; exit 2 on a missing file.
- Not run
- The prompt inside a harness. Any real report.
Copied from this item's dated test notes. What was not run stays in.
Worth knowing
- The sample checks one file against five rules. The full shelf, cadence and basis per report, a note on what each publisher sells, edition checks in a ledger, a cap on shelf size, quote length and locator rules, proposals, owner approvals by hash and the fifteen checks are in the full pack.
- On 2026-10-29 shelf_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 and no real report was read.
Questions
Does it send anything anywhere?
No. It reads one file and opens no network connection.
What is in the full pack?
The shelf folder with templates and a starter list of candidate series, shelf.py with edition checks, a ledger, a gate for agents and owner approvals tied to a hash with one use and expiry, fifteen read-only checks with a seeded test shelf, a skill file, AGENTS.md snippet and Grok Bot rules block, ten prompts and a failure table. $19.
Details
Version 1.0 · Updated Oct 29, 2026 · Markdown version of this page
License: Personal and commercial use. Download terms
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