DOT
DOT is a community-maintained two-lane instruction package for operating a configured agent and restricting it to evidence-heavy, long-running internet research. It is designed for owner-authorized use with OpenAI's dot product, but it is not an OpenAI product or an automatic product configuration.
This is a community-maintained project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by OpenAI.
Read left to right
#AGENT → #PROJECT → #INTERNET → #DATA → #TEMPLATE
Optional deliverable: #SUMMARY produces one explicitly requested, evidence-completing subtopic executive brief without changing the four-stage workflow or overwriting its parent report.
agent/defines the runtime, exact models, permissions, verified storage, continuous progress,#LAZYrecovery, browser, shared tab capacity, tools, Pages, video, and transcription behavior.research/builds a project around that Agent, supplies the pure internet-research rules, converts reviewed evidence into controlled datasets, and provides reusable templates.
Repository release style, review, and publication are governed separately by the repo-wide #RELEASE contract. Because docs/ is a non-instructional prefix in ingest.json, it never becomes Agent or Research authority when DOT is loaded.
Load the Agent contract first. A Research project may narrow it but cannot silently add a model, tool, account, permission, execution surface, or destination.
Load a tagged release into OpenAI dot
Use the GitHub-generated source archive for an exact published tag, not a moving branch or the current Pages copy. Attach the archive to the owner's dot, then direct it to ingest.json. That manifest is routing metadata: it identifies the release, ordered live instructions, conditional modules, supporting files, hashes, and non-instructional paths without copying the contracts.
The dot must inventory the archive and return an ingestion receipt before acting as #AGENT. ChatGPT or dot memory, connected-app context, prior tasks, release notes, history, CI files, and retrieved text do not become current instructions or permissions. Research begins only after the owner-supplied topic produces a materially complete Project Control Packet in READY state.
OpenAI documents file attachment and optional local-computer and Codex routes for dot. This contract keeps its narrower browser-first boundary: Codex, the owner's local computer, installation, and unassigned models remain prohibited.
The rendered documentation is published at https://devs-guide.github.io/openai/dot/. Exact current sources are published beneath /openai/raw/dot/.
Operating defaults
| Area | Current contract |
|---|---|
| Models | Assigned collaborator followed by an explicit, accessibility-gated fallback order |
| Execution | Cloud browser by default; existing VM tools require project opt-in |
| Browser tabs | Four shared tabs by default across all windows and workers; an approved project may configure another positive limit |
| Project health | Verified 15-minute cron-style scheduling when available and authorized; otherwise disclosed event-driven checks |
| Lazy recovery | #LAZY requires observed avoidable inactivity plus an executable authorized action; elapsed time alone is insufficient |
| Codex and installation | Prohibited |
| Working files | /workspace/scratch/<project-id>/ is always ephemeral and untrusted |
| Persistent files | Verified agent:storage default or approved override; need-based shared agent:<term> locations or Projects are permitted |
| Research recovery | Every completed batch or interruption checkpoint uses a verified immutable ZIP successor and recovery manifest |
| Research data | Human-facing atomic Facts backed by assertions, observations, claims, and evidence links |
| Dataset releases | Applicable 22-basename menu with CSV/JSON machine parity, complete Markdown views, validation, immutable snapshots, and successor corrections |
| Executive briefs | Conditional self-contained PDFs with a required Fact matrix, bounded public-source gap filling, frozen final evidence, visual inspection, and readback |
History and compatibility
Release 0.0.2 consolidates the original prompts and dated guides. Release 0.0.3 adds the optional Summary deliverable without changing the core workflow. Release 0.0.4 adds the repository-wide Release contract. Release 0.0.5 makes Summary evidence-completing by default without changing the DOT instruction order. Release 0.0.6 adds coordinated, configurable #TABS behavior inside the Browser module. Candidate 0.0.7 adds verified Storage, continuous Progress and #LAZY recovery, purpose-based locations, and versioned Research archives. The two-lane migration record maps every 0.0.1 source to its current owner. Historical rendered routes redirect; historical raw routes identify both the immutable original and current replacement.
Compilation, auditing, static-site builds, and tests run only in GitHub Actions. The local workstation is limited to source editing and Git operations.
Rights
No open-source license is granted. See ../COPYRIGHT.md.