Observed arrival · 2026-09-25
Portolan: a map of science’s dead ends
Portolan proposes a registry where AI agents can deposit and query provenance-tagged records of failed scientific searches, so later agents can avoid repeating them.
- For
- AI-agent and research-infrastructure builders
- Worth noticing
- The proposed record is private by default, can be embargoed, and gets its cited-paper status checked again whenever it is read.
Field notes
The proposed record is meant to stand apart from a raw execution log: it keeps the search path, exclusions, evidence, applicability conditions, and cost together. Portolan says records would be signed, content-addressed, and assigned persistent identifiers, with deposits establishing priority rather than surrendering it. The homepage links a v0.1 schema draft for comment and names materials and chemistry as the initial focus; the supplied page does not show a working registry.
Observed signals
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