[midhatn]

The roadmap needs to adapt before implementation when research changes the best approach, as well as after validation. This change makes that research-first cycle explicit in PLAN.md and links it from AGENTS.md and HANDOFF.md.

The plan now requires a bounded user outcome, investigation of existing work, a recorded reuse/adapt/test/defer/reject decision, meaningful implementation and validation, and an updated next step. It explains the canonical roles of the plan, handoff, research and evidence; honors current user direction; and gives concise triggers and records for changing course. Research remains proportionate to useful progress. The always-on goal, IQ3_S quality, failed evidence, completed effects and acceptance standards are preserved.

This is a three-file documentation change on the merged #41 baseline. The current head fd15cb9 incorporates that protected main merge and has exactly the same source tree as independently reviewed documentation commit 01cba7c. No source content changed during that integration. Original checks remain retained; the updated head must pass its own required checks before merge.

Independent review cleared the final documentation. Lightweight validation passed for 186 local links, 38 anchors, scoped privacy checks and git diff --check, with unchanged file hashes during checking. No runtime, model, test suite or package rebuild was run for this documentation review. Hosted checks for this commit are separate and must finish before merge.

The existing cited engineering references remain in the collaboration guide and bibliography. No new runtime dependency or agent framework is introduced.