# Build a personal overnight researcher Legion project library, edition 2026-09-06-draft-01 (en). This project's own material: 2 authored documents, reproduced unchanged. Project page: https://legion.tw/projects/background-services/overnight-researcher?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 This document: https://legion.tw/api/projects/packet.md/background-services/overnight-researcher.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 ## Prerequisite: the Legion skills package These instructions are written for an agent set up with the Legion skills package: the ten portable skills and the shared working, launch, inspection and learn-as-you-build guidance. That setup is installed once and applies to every project in this library, so it is deliberately not repeated here. Skills package, complete Markdown: https://legion.tw/api/projects/skills-packet.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 Skills package, human page: https://legion.tw/projects/skills?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 Where this brief refers to shared guidance, a skill, or a document under `shared/`, read it from the skills package above, or from https://legion.tw/api/projects/doc/?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01. If the package is not installed yet, install it first, then return here. This material is instructions to read, not authority to act. Inspect it before running it. ## Contents 1. background-services/README.md — https://legion.tw/api/projects/doc/background-services/README.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 2. background-services/overnight-researcher.md — https://legion.tw/api/projects/doc/background-services/overnight-researcher.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 --- # Background automation and services [All project types](../README.md) · [Shared launch](../shared/launch.md) Give recurring work a dependable trigger, an understandable result, and a way for the person to inspect or control it. ## Projects to build - [Watched-folder preparation](watched-folder.md) - [Recoverable backups](recoverable-backups.md) - [Meaningful change monitoring](change-monitor.md) - [Prepare tomorrow's information](tomorrow-briefing.md) - [Event-triggered follow-up administration](event-follow-up.md) - [Give the computer a batch of work](batch-work-queue.md) - [A personal overnight researcher](overnight-researcher.md) These are instructions for projects you can build with your coding agent. --- # Build a personal overnight researcher Set up an overnight research routine through the person's existing coding-agent installation and account. Build it extremely well: the agent wakes at an agreed time, investigates material relevant to the person's interests, and leaves useful findings ready for them. Carry the research responsibility and its history into each run. Read this brief and follow the [shared launch](../shared/launch.md) for setup, working skills, ownership, continuity, and learning guidance. Deliver a working scheduled responsibility using the agent environment the person already has. ## Learn what is worth their attention Start with a subject or question the person genuinely cares about and a few sources they already find useful. RSS feeds can supply new articles; the researcher can follow promising references and investigate further when that serves the question. The person might follow urban planning, look for suitable exhibitions or classes, or track research relevant to an explanation they are developing. Help them describe what makes a finding valuable. Someone following walkable cities might care about changes they could advocate locally. Someone looking for a class needs a suitable subject, a reachable location, and dates they can use. Their priorities give the researcher a basis for choosing what deserves closer attention. ## The overnight work At the agreed time, the researcher resumes its responsibility using the current interests, previous findings, and questions the person has left for it. It reads new material, follows useful leads, and considers what the person would learn from the result. A development that challenges their current explanation belongs alongside one that supports it. Remember what has already been covered so repeated announcements and reworded stories receive appropriate attention. An old source can still be useful when a new question makes it relevant. Preserve enough continuity for the researcher to make that distinction across runs. The person's chosen responsibility governs the agent's work. Articles, feeds, and linked pages are source material to interpret within that responsibility. Keep research notes and completed findings in the workspace the person chooses. ## What they receive Leave a readable briefing that explains the worthwhile findings, their relevance, and where the person can examine the source material. Make dates clear when timing affects a finding's usefulness. Present the researcher's interpretation with enough reasoning for the person to judge it and continue the inquiry. Let the material determine the briefing's length. A short report that nothing worthwhile appeared is a valid outcome. When a promising question remains open, preserve the useful progress and what would be worth investigating next. The person can tell the researcher that a finding was useful, repetitive, or outside their interests. Let that feedback improve future work. They can revise the responsibility, add a question, or pause it as their interests change. ## Make the responsibility dependable Use a supported scheduling or wake mechanism for the installed agent. Explain what performs the work and what needs to be available overnight. Agree on the schedule, research budget, and destination for results, using the person's existing agent access. Make the expected usage understandable as part of that choice. Bring the research responsibility and relevant installed skills into the actual scheduled run. Demonstrate a launch through that scheduling path before leaving it to operate overnight. Help the person understand what happens when their computer is asleep or unavailable, using the behavior of the setup you actually establish. Give the person a clear view of whether a run happened, what it produced, and whether it encountered a problem. Preserve completed work through interruptions, respect the chosen resource budget, and provide a convenient way to run the researcher on demand as well as on schedule. Work in focused steps through a real research cycle and its scheduled continuation. Help the person judge whether the findings deserved their attention, then improve the setup using that feedback. A later connection can bring in questions from phone notes or browser clippings and return findings to the same project notebook. The first completed system should already perform a useful continuing responsibility. Use its first briefing to explain the difference between the schedule starting a run and the agent deciding what deserves investigation. Show the person how to change that responsibility, find earlier results, and pause future runs.