Welcome to CoAutoResearch’s documentation

CoAutoResearch is a self-improving, human-centered research scaffold. It helps a local agent backend do substantial research work — sharpening it trial by trial — while keeping the human author able to understand, steer, defend, and revise the project. Codex is the default backend; Claude Code is optional.

The goal is not a finished artifact you cannot explain. The goal is a traceable research trajectory you can actually use.

Key Features

• Reviewable automation: project framing, trials, reports, and findings stay visible as files.

• Human control: interventions can redirect scope, method, venue, claim, or priority.

• Continuation-friendly workflow: close the browser or terminal, then return later with co-auto-research ls and co-auto-research attach.

• Remote-friendly UI: run the server on SSH machines and open it from your local browser through a tunnel.

Quick Start

Open the dashboard from any folder:

npx --yes co-auto-research ui

No repository clone is needed for this path. It starts the local dashboard and opens it in your browser. If you run it from inside a cloned CoAutoResearch checkout, npm resolves that local checkout instead.

Create projects, attach files, revise framing, and start autoresearch from the UI.

For repeated use, install once with npm install -g co-auto-research, then run co-auto-research ui.

To update later:

npm install -g co-auto-research@latest

Get Started

• Getting Started
  • Quick Start
  • Prerequisites
  • Install the CLI Command
  • Start the Dashboard
  • Update the CLI
  • Create a Project
  • Attach Files
  • Autoresearch Controls
  • Theme
  • Return Later
  • Start From the CLI
  • Remote Server
• Best Practices
  • Best ways to start
  • Keep the Critical Path empirical
  • Working with the manuscript blueprint
  • Generating figures
  • Staying in the loop
• CLI Reference
  • Commands
  • Start the UI
  • Project Dashboard
  • Return to Existing Work
  • Autoresearch Commands
  • Update Project Instructions
  • Port and Browser Options
  • Remote Mode
  • Environment Variables

User Guide

• Multiple Projects
  • Start A Dashboard
  • Isolation Model
  • Single-Project Mode
• Remote Servers
  • Cloudflare CLI setup
  • HTTP proxy servers
  • SSH Fallback
  • File Access Semantics
  • Security
• Platform Support
  • Required Tools
  • macOS And Linux
  • Windows Native
  • Windows With WSL2
  • File Attachment Behavior
  • Remote Servers
• Upgrading
  • Update Project Instructions
  • Adopt The Critical-Path Deliverable Model

Concepts

• Concepts
  • Research Loop
  • What the Diagram Means
  • Critical Path Control
  • Manuscript Deliverables
  • Control Surfaces
  • Why This Matters