Research Roadmap
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Open questions and areas requiring deeper investigation. These are the unknowns that, if answered, would unlock higher-confidence decisions or stronger content.
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High Priority
1. Cost Economics of Background Agents
Question: What does it actually cost to run a Devin/Cursor/Claude agent workflow at various scales (solo dev → small team → startup)?
Why it matters: The background agent pattern currently lacks hard numbers. Real cost data would make the argument concrete and help engineers decide when to use agents vs. traditional approaches.
**Sources:
Devin pricing (current)
Cursor agent usage data
Claude API costs per task
Time saved vs. cost incurred (from the Devin case study)
Status: Not started
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2. Testing Ownership in Agent-Produced Code
Question: If an agent writes the code, who writes the tests? What testing patterns work best for agent-produced PRs?
Why it matters: The current cluster covers code generation and trust verification but doesn't address testing quality. This is the biggest blind spot.
**Sources:
The Devin case study (did Devin write tests?)
Cursor agent testing behavior
Human review patterns for agent tests
Status: Not started
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3. Team Dynamics Under Async Agent Workflows
Question: How do team communication patterns change when some engineers work asynchronously with agents? Does it create coordination overhead? Does it scale?
Why it matters: The current content is individual-focused. To reach wider audience, understanding team/org implications is critical.
**Sources:
Case studies of teams using Devin/Cursor agents
Pair programming vs. agent pairing comparisons
Status: Not started
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Medium Priority
4. Graduated Trust Feasibility on Hypermedia
Question: Can the graduated trust web-of-trust system be implemented using Seed Hypermedia capabilities and profile attestations? What would the schema look like?
Why it matters: Validating that the proposal can be built on HM would give it a concrete home and differentiate it from theoretical trust frameworks.
Status: Not started
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5. State Machine Formalization for Common Agent Patterns
Question: What are the canonical state machines for common agent workflows (research→code→test→PR, bug→fix→verify, etc.)? Can we abstract them into a library?
Why it matters: A formal model makes the background agent pattern teachable and implementable.
Status: Not started
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Completed / Resolved
(None yet — first analysis)
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How to Use This
When new evidence arrives (new articles, case studies, data points), check which questions it answers and update the status. Remove or downgrade resolved questions; add new ones as they surface.
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