Skill v1.0.1

currentAutomated scan100/100

ai-4-phi/phillit/philosophy-research

+29 new

──Details

PublishedAugust 25, 2026 at 03:27 PM

Content Hashsha256:7d6b9968da9c647c...

Git SHA3c1f9e9d04b5

Bump Typepatch

Compare with v1.0.0

──Files

Files (1 file, 12.4 KB)

SKILL.md12.4 KBactive

SKILL.md · 269 lines · 12.4 KB

version: "1.0.1" name: philosophy-research description: Search philosophy literature across SEP, IEP, PhilPapers, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, CORE, arXiv, and NDPR. Supports paper discovery, citation traversal, content enrichment, and recommendations. Verifies citations via CrossRef. Use when searching for philosophy papers or encyclopedia entries, verifying that a citation exists, or collecting literature for a review. allowed-tools: Bash, Read, Write, Grep, WebFetch

Philosophy Research Skill

Search and retrieve academic philosophy literature using structured APIs instead of WebSearch.

Setup check: If the current directory has no .phillit/ marker, PhilLit has not been set up here — offer to run /phillit:setup (a quick one-time step) before continuing.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

Searching for philosophy papers, articles, or concepts
Accessing SEP (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) content
Finding citations and references for papers
Verifying that a paper exists with correct metadata
Building bibliographies for literature reviews

Search Workflow

Batching: when you have several searches, run them in ONE shell
call — & + wait between scripts hitting DIFFERENT APIs, plain
sequential lines between calls to the SAME API (its shared rate limiter
would serialize them anyway, and the limiter's file lock is Unix-only,
so same-API parallelism buys nothing and can race on Windows). Parallel
fan-outs give each script --output and finish with
grep -m1 '"status"' <files> — full results land in files, one short
attributed status line each lands on screen; sequential same-API chains
with small payloads skip both and just consume the inline stdout
(exception: verify_paper.py always keeps --output — the metadata
cleaner reads its files — while its status prints inline). Never batch
across a dependency: a search whose query is composed from an earlier
search's results is its own call.

Phase 1: SEP & IEP (Most Authoritative)

bash

# Discover relevant SEP articles
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/search_sep.py "free will"
 
# Extract structured content from an SEP entry
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/fetch_sep.py freewill --sections "preamble,1,2,bibliography"
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/fetch_sep.py freewill --bibliography-only
 
# Discover relevant IEP articles (different coverage from SEP)
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/search_iep.py "free will"
 
# Extract structured content from an IEP entry
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/fetch_iep.py freewill --sections "1,2,3,bibliography"
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/fetch_iep.py freewill --bibliography-only

Parse the bibliographies for foundational works, then search for those papers.

Phase 2: PhilPapers

bash

# Philosophy-specific paper search
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/search_philpapers.py "epistemic injustice"
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/search_philpapers.py "virtue epistemology" --recent

Phase 3: Extended Academic Search

bash

# Semantic Scholar - broad academic search
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/s2_search.py "moral responsibility" --field Philosophy --year 2015-2025
 
# OpenAlex - 250M+ works, cross-disciplinary
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/search_openalex.py "consciousness" --year 2020-2024 --min-citations 10
 
# CORE - 431M+ research outputs, 46M full texts, excellent for abstracts
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/search_core.py "epistemic injustice" --year 2020-2024
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/search_core.py --doi "10.1111/nous.12191"
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/search_core.py --title "Freedom of the Will" --author "Frankfurt"
 
# arXiv - preprints, AI ethics, recent work
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/search_arxiv.py "AI alignment ethics" --category cs.AI --recent

Note: CORE requires a (free) CORE_API_KEY — without one the script skips CORE entirely rather than fight the unauthenticated rate limit. Keyed access is rate-limited to 5 requests per 10 seconds.

Phase 4: Citation Traversal

bash

# Get references and citations for a paper
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/s2_citations.py PAPER_ID --both --influential-only
 
# Find recommendations based on seed papers
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/s2_recommend.py --positive "PAPER_ID1,PAPER_ID2"

Phase 5: Batch Details

bash

# Efficiently fetch metadata for multiple papers
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/s2_batch.py --ids "PAPER_ID1,PAPER_ID2,DOI:10.xxx/yyy"

Phase 6: Content Enrichment

Enrich entries that lack abstracts. Two sub-steps:

6a. Abstract Resolution — Resolve abstracts from academic APIs (S2 → OpenAlex → CORE fallback):

bash

# Single paper
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/get_abstract.py --doi "10.1111/nous.12191"
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/get_abstract.py --title "Freedom of the Will" --author "Frankfurt" --year 1971
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/get_abstract.py --s2-id "abc123def"

For batch processing, use enrich_bibliography.py (in literature-review scripts):

bash

bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/literature-review/scripts/enrich_bibliography.py input.bib

6b. NDPR Enrichment — For @book entries that still lack an abstract after step 6a and have High or Medium importance (as noted in the keywords field), use NDPR (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews) to extract opening summary paragraphs from book reviews:

bash

# Discover NDPR reviews for a book
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/search_ndpr.py --title "Book Title" --author "AuthorSurname"
 
# Extract content from an NDPR review
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/fetch_ndpr.py --url REVIEW_URL

NDPR extracts are tagged with abstract_source = {ndpr} in BibTeX entries. Note: NDPR content is primarily descriptive of the book's arguments but may include reviewer evaluation.

The batch enrich_bibliography.py script handles both 6a and 6b automatically.

Phase 7: Encyclopedia Context Extraction (Optional)

For important papers, extract how they're discussed in authoritative philosophy encyclopedias:

bash

# Extract SEP citation context for a specific paper
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/get_sep_context.py freewill --author "Frankfurt" --year 1971
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/get_sep_context.py freewill --author "Fischer" --year 1998 --coauthor "Ravizza"
 
# Extract IEP citation context
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/get_iep_context.py freewill --author "Frankfurt" --year 1971

Phase 8: Verification

bash

# Verify a paper exists via CrossRef
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/verify_paper.py --title "The Title" --author "Smith" --year 2020
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/verify_paper.py --doi "10.1093/mind/fzv123"

SEP Content Access

Use `fetch_sep.py` instead of WebFetch for SEP articles.

fetch_sep.py provides structured extraction:

Preamble (abstract/introduction)
Individual sections by number
Bibliography with parsed author/year/title
Author and publication dates

bash

# Get specific sections
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/fetch_sep.py compatibilism --sections "preamble,1,2"
 
# Get bibliography only
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/fetch_sep.py freewill --bibliography-only

IEP Content Access

Use `fetch_iep.py` for Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy articles.

fetch_iep.py provides structured extraction similar to SEP:

Preamble, individual sections, bibliography, author information

bash

bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/fetch_iep.py compatibilism --sections "1,2,3"
bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/fetch_iep.py freewill --bibliography-only

Note: IEP has different coverage than SEP. Use both for comprehensive encyclopedia coverage.

Available Scripts

Script	Purpose	Key Options
`s2_search.py`	Paper discovery	`--bulk`, `--year`, `--field`, `--min-citations`
`s2_citations.py`	Citation traversal	`--references`, `--citations`, `--influential-only`
`s2_batch.py`	Batch paper details	`--ids`, `--file`
`s2_recommend.py`	Find similar papers	`--positive`, `--negative`, `--for-paper`
`search_openalex.py`	Broad academic search	`--year`, `--doi`, `--id`, `--cites`, `--oa-only`
`search_arxiv.py`	arXiv preprints	`--category`, `--author`, `--recent`, `--id`
`search_sep.py`	SEP discovery	`--limit`, `--all-pages`
`fetch_sep.py`	SEP content extraction	`--sections`, `--bibliography-only`, `--related-only`
`search_iep.py`	IEP discovery	`--limit`, `--all-pages`
`fetch_iep.py`	IEP content extraction	`--sections`, `--bibliography-only`
`search_philpapers.py`	PhilPapers search	`--limit`, `--recent`
`verify_paper.py`	DOI verification	`--title`, `--author`, `--year`, `--doi`
`search_core.py`	CORE API (431M papers)	`--doi`, `--title`, `--author`, `--year`
`get_abstract.py`	Multi-source abstract resolution	`--doi`, `--s2-id`, `--title`, `--author`
`get_sep_context.py`	SEP citation context extraction	`--author`, `--year`, `--coauthor`
`get_iep_context.py`	IEP citation context extraction	`--author`, `--year`, `--coauthor`
`search_ndpr.py`	NDPR book review discovery	`--title`, `--author`
`fetch_ndpr.py`	NDPR content extraction	`--url`, `--slug`
`check_setup.py`	Environment check	`--json`, `--verbose`, `--skip-api`

Output Format

All scripts output JSON with consistent structure:

json

{
  "status": "success|partial|error",
  "source": "script_name",
  "query": "search query",
  "results": [...],
  "count": 5,
  "errors": []
}

Exit codes: 0=success, 1=not found, 2=config error, 3=API error

WebFetch Usage

Use WebFetch only when scripts don't provide the needed content:

PhilPapers entry pages for additional metadata
Publisher pages for paper details not in S2
DOI resolution verification (https://doi.org/{doi})

Do NOT use WebFetch for:

SEP articles: use fetch_sep.py (structured output)
Paper abstracts: use s2_search.py or s2_batch.py

Verification Requirements

Never fabricate citations - only include papers found via scripts
Verify DOIs via verify_paper.py when S2 lacks DOI
Omit DOI field if verification fails (never invent DOIs)
Report gaps if expected papers are not found

Environment

Required environment variables (set in the shell environment or in .env at the project root — a .env value takes priority):

bash

BRAVE_API_KEY        # Required for SEP/PhilPapers discovery
CROSSREF_MAILTO      # Required for CrossRef polite pool
S2_API_KEY           # Recommended for Semantic Scholar
OPENALEX_EMAIL       # Recommended for OpenAlex polite pool
OPENALEX_API_KEY     # Optional: OpenAlex meters by daily spend, and one review
                     # costs a quarter to a half of the unkeyed $0.10/day. Only
                     # needed above ~4 reviews/day; free at
                     # https://openalex.org/settings/api. On exhaustion PhilLit
                     # says so and continues without OpenAlex.
CORE_API_KEY         # Optional: CORE searches and CORE abstract fallback are
                     # skipped without it; free at https://core.ac.uk/services/api

Check setup with:

bash

bash "$PHILLIT_ROOT/bin/phillit-run" skills/philosophy-research/scripts/check_setup.py

← v1.0.0 All versions