Strict Core
Domain records define evidence identity, authority, decisions, provenance, snapshots, invalidation, and verification without depending on UI, databases, or providers.
Why Nexus exists
Research software should preserve how knowledge was produced.
A final spreadsheet, report, or answer is not enough. Trustworthy research software should preserve the protocol, evidence, judgments, changes, exceptions, and exact outputs that made the answer possible.
The problem
Research workflows cross many fragile boundaries: a database export becomes a cleaned corpus; duplicate evidence becomes a merge; two screening votes become one verdict; a local file becomes “the paper”; an automated suggestion becomes prose in a report. Conventional applications often preserve only the current screen or database row. The history needed to explain the transition disappears.
Nexus Scholar takes the opposite position: scientific state is explicit, content-addressed where appropriate, append-only where history matters, and accepted only through the authority that owns it.
The operating model
Flexible workflows
Systematic, rapid, scoping, mapping, and lighter personal workflows may differ in method while retaining the same underlying evidence and human-authority laws.
Simple surfaces
CLI and desktop experiences translate strict records into understandable tasks, confirmations, warnings, and evidence inspection without becoming authority themselves.
Product laws
| Law | What it prevents |
|---|---|
| Suggestion is not a decision. | Automation output silently becoming human judgment. |
| Draft is not an approved protocol. | Editable intent masquerading as authorized conduct. |
| Reporting guidance is not a conduct method. | A reporting checklist redefining how the review was performed. |
| Current state is not historical record. | Corrections and changes erasing the original event. |
| Plugin isolation is not a security sandbox. | Dependency separation being oversold as safe arbitrary-code execution. |
| Vector retrieval is not an evidence source. | A relevance mechanism replacing source evidence and citations. |
| Cloud storage does not transfer data ownership. | Infrastructure location becoming scientific or legal authority. |
Who it is for
- Researchers who need a review that can be reopened, checked, and handed off.
- Students who need guidance without hiding the rigor underneath.
- Supervisors and methodologists who need to inspect why a decision was made.
- Labs that prefer local evidence ownership and durable audit trails.
- Developers building research tools that should not invent their own authority model.
Public honesty
Nexus Scholar Core is an early alpha, not a production systematic-review platform. The local authority stack is substantial, but live providers, a plugin runtime, governed model execution, connected collaboration, and production operations remain later work.
Evaluate what is actually present
The implementation status is dated and evidence-linked. The roadmap separates completed behavior from candidate and future work.