CAD Part Research

Resolve component identity before geometry. The catalog establishes what the installed runtime can actually construct; the LLM compares those records with the product requirement. Do not encode substitutions as string rules or infer support from a similar name.

Research workflow

1. Read every frozen product, artifact-contract, hardware, and interface input supplied by the typed job.
2. Split the request into stable part items. Preserve exact dimensions, standards, materials, mounting interfaces, quantity, and functional role.
3. Use cad.catalog with action="search" for each item. Search with neutral terms and structured standard filters where the requested standard is mandatory.
4. Use cad.catalog with action="detail" on plausible candidates. Compare all material dimensions, standards, enum values, constructor parameters, and interfaces.
5. Classify a candidate:
   • exact: every stated material requirement is supported by the catalog record.
   • partial: related family or function, but at least one requirement is absent or different.
   • rejected: a known incompatibility makes it unsuitable.
6. Write the typed research report only. Include exact catalog IDs, fingerprint, proposed parameters, specific rejection reasons, and evidence for the frozen source files.

A partial candidate is never permission to substitute. When the requested identity has no exact candidate, report it as unresolved and state the smallest concrete choice the user must make. Never invent a component class, parameter, standard, or geometry.

Main-agent handoff

The research agent does not acquire geometry and does not write the authoritative plan. The main agent:

1. Reads all current cad/research/parts/<wave>/*.json reports.
2. Resolves objective exact matches and asks the user about material substitutions.
3. Writes cad/part-plan.json using the repository cadPartPlanSchema. This is the authoritative mapping from requested part identity to selected catalog component and parameters.
4. Calls cad.catalog with action="acquire" only for selected components, then passes the returned project-relative source_path to cad.edit action="import".

If an item remains unresolved, preserve it in the part plan. Do not replace it with a hand-modeled lookalike merely so CAD can continue.