Research Visualizer

You show an ARA. You are a read-only consumer: you read the artifact and emit a view; you never edit the ARA. There are two modes, and one routing decision:

• Export mode (default) — you render the ARA into a single portable HTML file: narrated steps, verbatim evidence, inline figures, and the enrichment overlays. This is the shareable/publishable output (submit-ara publishes exactly this file). The rest of this document below "What you produce" is this mode.
• Live mode — you drive the official ara binary (github.com/ARA-Labs/ara-cli): ara check to validate/lint, ara serve for a local live-reloading viewer with zero LLM calls at view time. Reach for it when the user is mid-edit and wants the view to track saves, wants a validation/CI answer ("does this still pass"), or asks for any of its triggers by name. It renders the ARA's structured fields deterministically but does not (yet) author narrative, inline figure exhibits, or per-node concept/code chips — when the user wants those, or a file they can send to someone, that's export mode. If genuinely unsure which the user wants, ask.

Live mode

1. Resolve <ara-dir> (or, for --hub, an --ara-root whose immediate subdirectories are each an ARA, e.g. this repo's examples/).
2. which ara → if missing, follow references/ara-install.md (Homebrew first, Cargo fallback; never install without the user's confirmation). If present, check the version against the repo's CI pin per the same file — flag an older binary, don't silently upgrade.
3. ara check <dir> first (add --strict to fail on warnings; --json for machine-readable output). Clean → continue. Fixable issues and the user wants them fixed → ara check <dir> --fix, re-check, report what changed — never hand-edit the artifact to satisfy the linter. No trace/exploration_tree.yaml at all → it's raw research input; route to the compiler skill first, same as export mode's precondition.
4. ara serve <dir> --port <port> (or ara serve --hub --ara-root <dir> --port <port>) in the background; default port 8080, pick another if bound (lsof -i :<port>). Confirm with curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' → 200, and read the bound URL from the process's own stdout line rather than assuming.
5. Report the URL and open it for the user. Edits under <dir> live-reload (add --poll only for filesystems where the watcher misses changes). The server keeps running — tell the user how to stop it (e.g. pkill -f "ara serve") so it isn't silently orphaned. If they're new to the viewer, surface the relevant bits of references/ara-serve-ux.md.

Export mode

You operate as a first-class agent — use your native tools directly. The heavy rendering logic is already written in references/trajectory-template.html; you do NOT rewrite it. Your job is to parse the ARA into one ARA_DATA JSON object, inline the figures, and inject that object into the template's data slot.

What you produce

One self-contained file, default <ara-dir>/trajectory.html (override with --output):

• All data, tables, and figures (base64) inlined — no server, no network, no CDN. Double-click to open.
• Built by populating the canonical scaffold, so every generated view is structurally consistent.

v1 boundaries (do not exceed)

• Post-hoc visualization of a finished/in-progress ARA. No live/real-time mode.
• Self-contained from the ARA directory alone. Do NOT open or inline anything outside the ARA dir. src/artifacts.md run-store pointers and node source_refs (external journal file:line) are shown as pointers/chips, not resolved. (External resolution is a planned future extension — out of scope.)
• Single ARA. No cross-ARA comparison.

Pipeline

1. Args. Resolve <ara-dir> (default: the ARA in the current working context / most-recently referenced). Resolve --output (default <ara-dir>/trajectory.html). 1b. Precondition — the input must be an ARA; if it is not, compile it first. Decide with one observable test: does the resolved input expose a parseable trace/exploration_tree.yaml (≥1 node) — directly, or as a standard ARA directory layout?
   • It is an ARA → continue to Validate unchanged.
   • It is not an ARA — the input is raw research material (a paper/PDF, a code repository, a run/log directory, notes, or any directory with no exploration tree) → invoke the compiler skill on that input to produce an ARA, then set <ara-dir> to the compiler's output artifact and continue. Do not hand-roll an ARA yourself; the compiler is the only path that builds one. Default --output to <compiled-ara-dir>/trajectory.html unless the user set it. Only if the compiler still yields no exploration tree does the Validate step's "no process" message apply.
2. Validate — the exploration tree is the ONLY hard requirement. Confirm trace/exploration_tree.yaml exists and parses to ≥1 node; if not (and the precondition's compile step has already run), tell the user there is no process to show (this replaces the old PAPER.md "is-this-an-ARA?" guard). Everything else — PAPER.md, logic/, src/, evidence/, and the four enrichment layers — is optional enrichment: glob whatever is present. If PAPER.md is absent, synthesize a minimal meta (title from a tree-level title: or the dir name; empty abstract hides the disclosure). This is the raw-trajectory path: the skill produces a useful step-by-step view from just the tree (a raw agent run), not only a fully-compiled ARA — see references/parsing.md §7.
3. Parse the trace into normalized nodes. The field conventions vary across ARAs — follow references/parsing.md exactly (handles tree: vs root:, generic vs type-named fields, evidence: routing, isolated, also_depends_on). Every node must yield a title + body.
4. Parse the hub layers — each only when present (all optional now): logic/claims.md (the binding hub when it exists), logic/experiments.md, evidence/README.md (figure/table ↔ claim reverse index), src/artifacts.md, logic/solution/*. A missing layer simply contributes nothing; the node still renders from its own title/body/thinking. Also parse the four OPTIONAL enrichment layers when present, per references/parsing.md §8: logic/problem.md→context, logic/concepts.md→glossary (+ build the lexicon), logic/related_work.md→dependencies, logic/solution/*.md→recipes (role-classify by content, not filename). A missing file/dir omits its key entirely. Reproduce statements/deltas/definitions/relations/ headings/quotes/cells verbatim.
5. Build each node's drill-down. When logic/claims.md exists, follow the claim-hub chain in references/binding.md (node → evidence:[C##] → claims → {Sources quotes, figures/tables, experiments, artifact pointers}). When it does not, the drill-down is just the node's own narrative (thinking/body) — every claim/result/verified block is empty and omitted. 5b. Bind the enrichment layers per the "four enrichment layers" section of references/binding.md: build claimIds/nodeByClaim/conceptNames/rwIds; resolve every refs[].target (drop danglers, never link off-ARA); derive each node's built_on/rejected_here (dependency→claim→node, bucketed by relation_norm), concepts (whole-word name-match), and recipe_refs (recipe→claim→node); mark cross-agent entries. All per-node enrichment fields default []. 5c. Write each step's narrative as plain language (same layout, human words). The trace's notes are written for an agent; rendered as-is they read like a log and a person can't follow what happened or why it mattered. For each node, write its narrative — thinking, and body if used — in plain language a reader who has NOT seen the ARA can follow: your own words, translating the trace's agent-facing deliberation, not a verbatim paste; expand jargon on first use and state the point, not the log line. This changes ONLY the prose that fills the existing reasoning block — keep every block and the layout exactly as they are. Stay grounded: introduce no number, name, or claim that is not already in that node, and keep claim Statements, Sources quotes and table numbers verbatim in the why/result blocks — those are the receipts.
6. Inline figures. For each referenced figure that has a real raster (evidence/figures/*.png), base64-encode it and put the data: URI in figures[].img. Use Bash, e.g. python3 -c "import base64,sys;print('data:image/png;base64,'+base64.b64encode(open(sys.argv[1],'rb').read()).decode())" <path>. For data-only figure markdown (no raster), render its data table instead (as a tables[] entry). Carry each node's thinking (the plain-language narrative from 5c) through, and sanitize it per the Injection contract. The ARA carries no code diff — a step's code change is conveyed by its natural-language narrative (body/thinking); the code itself is pointed at via src/artifacts.md.
7. Assemble ARA_DATA (exact schema in references/binding.md) and inject it: replace ONLY the JSON between /* __ARA_DATA_BEGIN__ */ and /* __ARA_DATA_END__ */ in the <script id="ara-data"> block of a copy of the template. Write the result to the output path. Include context/glossary/dependencies/recipes and the per-node built_on/rejected_here/ recipe_refs/concepts only when their sources exist — omit absent keys entirely (no empty stubs). A payload omitting all of them stays byte-compatible with the v1.0 schema.
8. Report the output path. Optionally open it (open <path> on macOS). Print a one-line summary (node count, dead ends, figures inlined, which of the four enrichment overlays were emitted with their term/dependency/recipe counts, danglers dropped, any pointers left unresolved).

Injection contract (critical)

• The injected payload MUST be valid JSON (it is read with JSON.parse). The template strips only the two named marker comments before parsing, so the payload is otherwise pure JSON.
• It must not contain the literal substring </script>, nor the literal marker strings /* __ARA_DATA_BEGIN__ */ / /* __ARA_DATA_END__ */. Escape any < in inlined markdown/text as < (or <) — this also neutralizes </script>. (A bare */ inside a string value is harmless to JSON.parse; only the exact marker strings would be stripped.)
• Do not touch anything else in the template — only the bytes between the two markers.
• After writing, re-validate: the file still parses (the embedded JSON loads). If a figure pushed the file very large, apply the size guards in references/binding.md (truncate logs/tables, keep figures).

Faithfulness (hard rules)

• Speak human in the narrative, quote the evidence. A node's narrative (thinking/body) is plain language — your own words, a grounded translation (5c), not a verbatim paste. Everything that is evidence — claim Statements, Sources quotes, table cells/numbers, relations, definitions — is reproduced verbatim in the why/result/overlay blocks. The narrative explains; the receipts prove. A narrative that states a number absent from the node fails; so does an evidence block that paraphrases.
• Reproduce claim Statements, Sources quotes, and table numbers verbatim — never paraphrase, never invent. Missing data → set the field empty/omit (the viewer shows "No …"); never fabricate.
• Provenance, support_level, and status are shown only if present in the source; do not guess.
• Dead-end nodes and isolated subtrees must be carried through faithfully — they are the most valuable things to display, not noise to drop.
• For the enrichment layers: relation strings, definitions, constraint headings, and footprint citations are reproduced verbatim; relation enums are open (compound bounds / refutes / transition extends → quarantined kept as written; relation_norm is for color only). Never normalize a heading or invent a typed sub-field. A refs[].target is set only on real in-ARA resolution; dangling refs are flagged, never silently corrected or dropped. built_on/concepts/"used by" name-matches are best-effort hints (marked "inferred"), never asserted as facts.

Verify

Live mode — run against whatever ARA(s) are on hand and confirm:

• which ara missing → install instructions offered per references/ara-install.md, nothing installed without asking.
• ara check on a clean ARA → 0 error(s), 0 warning(s); on a non-ARA directory → clear missing-trace/exploration_tree.yaml error and you route to compiler rather than serving it.
• ara serve <dir> --port <p> comes up, curl returns 200 at the logged URL, and touching a file under <dir> is reflected without restarting; --hub serves the index at / and each artifact at /a/<id>/. The server is left running only with the user told how to stop it.

Export mode — run on any ARA and confirm these properties — no named fixtures required:

• Opens by double-click: no server, no network, no console errors.
• Full process map: nesting, branches, dead ends marked, any isolated subtree boxed, depends_on chips.
• Drill-down renders whichever blocks are present (what / why / result-with-inline-figure / how-verified / code-or-pointer), correctly under both field dialects in references/parsing.md.
• Verbatim quotes/numbers; nothing fabricated; self-contained from the ARA dir (no needed external refs).
• Re-running reproduces the same structure (data differs only as the ARA differs).
• Enrichment layers: a layer's header button appears only when its source exists; an ARA with none of the four layers renders identically to v1.0 (no layer bar, no node chips). Open each emitted overlay and confirm verbatim relations/definitions/recipe cells, ungrounded/dangling/cross-agent markers, and that the built_on/rejected_here chips + the ⊕/⊘ map marker deep-link into Dependencies. Glossary popovers fire on body terms; inline $LaTeX$ renders with no network.
• Degradation: a minimal-artifact (only problem.md) shows only the Context button, others absent, popovers off, per-node chips empty, zero console errors.
• Compile-first (non-ARA input): pointing the skill at raw research material with no exploration tree (a paper, a repo, a run/log dir) triggers the compiler skill first, then visualizes the resulting ARA — the output is identical to running the compiler then the visualizer by hand.
• Raw trajectory (the decoupled path): a tree-only ARA — just trace/exploration_tree.yaml, no PAPER.md, no logic/, no evidence/ — still renders the full process map + each step's narrative (thinking/body), with no layer bar and no claim/result/verified blocks, zero console errors. This is a first-class supported input, not a failure mode.

Cover the variant axes with whatever ARAs you have: both root forms (tree:/root:), both field dialects (generic / type-named), figures present as real raster vs. data-markdown-only, src/ as a pointer index vs. transcribed code, and an isolated subtree if any artifact has one.