Pipeline Manifest

Build and maintain a pipeline.md that maps every script in a research project to its inputs, outputs, and the paper figures/tables it feeds. Optionally add structured headers to scripts that lack them.

When to Use

• When starting a multi-step empirical project (establish the pipeline early)
• Before sharing code with coauthors (makes the data flow legible)
• Before submission (ensures the replication package is traceable)
• After inheriting or reviving old code (pair with code-archaeology)
• When you can't remember which script produces Figure 3

When NOT to Use

• Pure theory projects with no empirical pipeline
• Single-script projects (no pipeline to map)
• Code quality review — use the code-review agent instead (this skill maps structure, not quality)

Modes

Ask the user which mode to run:

Mode	What it does	Writes to
Scan (default)	Read-only. Scans scripts, builds pipeline.md	pipeline.md only
Add headers	Scan + insert structured headers into scripts that lack them	pipeline.md + script files

In Add headers mode, show the proposed header for each script and get confirmation before writing. Never overwrite an existing structured header — only add to scripts that lack one.

Structured Script Header Format

Every research script should begin with a structured header block. The format adapts to the language:

Python

# ============================================================================
# PURPOSE: [One sentence describing what this script does]
# INPUTS:  [Comma-separated list of input files, relative to project root]
# OUTPUTS: [Comma-separated list of output files, relative to project root]
# DEPENDS: [Scripts that must run before this one, or "none"]
# PAPER:   [Figure/table references this feeds, e.g. "Figure 2, Table 1", or "none"]
# ============================================================================

R

# ============================================================================
# PURPOSE: [One sentence describing what this script does]
# INPUTS:  [Comma-separated list of input files, relative to project root]
# OUTPUTS: [Comma-separated list of output files, relative to project root]
# DEPENDS: [Scripts that must run before this one, or "none"]
# PAPER:   [Figure/table references this feeds, e.g. "Figure 2, Table 1", or "none"]
# ============================================================================

Stata

* ============================================================================
* PURPOSE: [One sentence describing what this script does]
* INPUTS:  [Comma-separated list of input files, relative to project root]
* OUTPUTS: [Comma-separated list of output files, relative to project root]
* DEPENDS: [Scripts that must run before this one, or "none"]
* PAPER:   [Figure/table references this feeds, e.g. "Figure 2, Table 1", or "none"]
* ============================================================================

Julia

# ============================================================================
# PURPOSE: [One sentence describing what this script does]
# INPUTS:  [Comma-separated list of input files, relative to project root]
# OUTPUTS: [Comma-separated list of output files, relative to project root]
# DEPENDS: [Scripts that must run before this one, or "none"]
# PAPER:   [Figure/table references this feeds, e.g. "Figure 2, Table 1", or "none"]
# ============================================================================

Header Field Definitions

Field	What it contains	How to populate
PURPOSE	One sentence. What does this script do?	Read the script and summarise
INPUTS	Files this script reads. Paths relative to project root.	Grep for read, load, import, open, use patterns
OUTPUTS	Files this script writes. Paths relative to project root.	Grep for write, save, export, ggsave, savefig, sink patterns
DEPENDS	Other scripts that must run first (their outputs are this script's inputs).	Trace input files back to the scripts that produce them
PAPER	Which figures, tables, or sections in the paper use this script's output.	Match output filenames against \includegraphics, \input, \include in .tex files

Workflow

Phase 1: Discover Scripts

Scan the project for research scripts:

code/**/*.{py,R,r,do,jl,m}
src/**/*.{py,R,r,do,jl,m}
scripts/**/*.{py,R,r,do,jl,m}

Exclude:

• __pycache__/, .venv/, renv/, node_modules/
• Test files (test_*.py, *_test.R)
• Setup/config scripts (setup.py, conftest.py)

Sort by filename (numerical prefixes like 01_, 02_ determine natural order).

Phase 2: Extract Pipeline Information

For each script:

1. Check for existing header. Look for the PURPOSE: / INPUTS: / OUTPUTS: / DEPENDS: / PAPER: pattern in the first 20 lines.

2. If header exists: Parse it directly. Trust the header as ground truth.

3. If no header: Read the full script and infer:

   • Inputs: File read operations (pd.read_csv, read.csv, readRDS, load, use, open, import delimited, fread, arrow::read_parquet, readr::read_*)
   • Outputs: File write operations (to_csv, write.csv, saveRDS, save, ggsave, plt.savefig, export, sink, write_parquet, fwrite, outsheet, estout)
   • Dependencies: Cross-reference — if script B reads a file that script A writes, then B depends on A
   • Paper links: Match output filenames against \includegraphics{...} and \input{...} in .tex files

Phase 3: Build Dependency Graph

From the extracted information, construct:

1. Execution order — topological sort of the dependency graph. Flag cycles as errors.
2. Orphan detection — scripts whose outputs are never used by another script or the paper. These may be exploratory/deprecated.
3. Missing link detection — inputs that no script produces and that don't exist in data/raw/.

Phase 4: Build Paper Linkage

Scan all .tex files in paper/ for:

• \includegraphics{path} — figures
• \input{path} — tables or sub-documents
• \include{path} — chapters

Match these paths to script outputs. Build a reverse map: for each figure/table in the paper, which script(s) produce it?

Phase 5: Write pipeline.md

Write pipeline.md to the project root using the format below.

Phase 6 (Add Headers Mode Only): Insert Headers

For scripts missing structured headers:

1. Generate the header from Phase 2 analysis
2. Show the proposed header to the user
3. On confirmation, insert at the top of the file (after any shebang line or encoding declaration)

pipeline.md Format

# Pipeline Manifest

> Auto-generated by `pipeline-manifest` on YYYY-MM-DD.
> Manually edit the PAPER column and any inferred values that are wrong.
> Re-run `pipeline-manifest` to refresh after adding or modifying scripts.

## Pipeline Table

| # | Script | Purpose | Inputs | Outputs | Depends | Paper |
|---|--------|---------|--------|---------|---------|-------|
| 1 | `code/01_clean.R` | Clean raw survey data | `data/raw/survey.csv` | `data/processed/survey_clean.rds` | none | -- |
| 2 | `code/02_merge.R` | Merge survey with admin data | `data/processed/survey_clean.rds`, `data/raw/admin.csv` | `data/processed/merged.rds` | `01_clean.R` | -- |
| 3 | `code/03_analysis.R` | Run main regressions | `data/processed/merged.rds` | `results/main_results.rds`, `paper/figures/fig_coef.pdf` | `02_merge.R` | Figure 2 |
| 4 | `code/04_robustness.py` | Robustness checks | `data/processed/merged.rds` | `results/robustness.csv`, `paper/figures/fig_robust.pdf` | `02_merge.R` | Figure 3, Table A1 |

## Figure & Table Manifest

| Paper Reference | Producing Script | Output File |
|----------------|-----------------|-------------|
| Figure 2 | `code/03_analysis.R` | `paper/figures/fig_coef.pdf` |
| Figure 3 | `code/04_robustness.py` | `paper/figures/fig_robust.pdf` |
| Table A1 | `code/04_robustness.py` | `results/robustness.csv` |

## Dependency Graph

data/raw/survey.csv ─┐ ├─> 01_clean.R ─> data/processed/survey_clean.rds ─┐ data/raw/admin.csv ──┘ ├─> 02_merge.R ─> data/processed/merged.rds ─┬─> 03_analysis.R │ └─> 04_robustness.py

## Diagnostics

### Orphan Scripts
Scripts whose outputs are not consumed by any other script or the paper.

### Missing Inputs
Files referenced as inputs but not produced by any script and not found in `data/raw/`.

### Execution Order
Recommended order based on dependency resolution:
1. `code/01_clean.R`
2. `code/02_merge.R`
3. `code/03_analysis.R`
4. `code/04_robustness.py` (can run in parallel with step 3)

Updating an Existing pipeline.md

If pipeline.md already exists:

1. Read it and parse the existing table
2. Re-scan scripts (some may have been added, removed, or modified)
3. Preserve manual edits — if the user has edited the PAPER column or added notes, keep those values. Only update fields that can be re-derived from code (PURPOSE, INPUTS, OUTPUTS, DEPENDS).
4. Flag changes: "2 scripts added, 1 script removed, 3 entries updated"
5. Write the updated file

Cross-References

• the code-review agent — Quality review for individual scripts (checks header presence in Category 2: Script Structure)
• code-archaeology — For understanding unfamiliar code before building the manifest
• pre-submission-report — Pipeline manifest helps verify the replication package is complete
• init-project-research — New projects can run pipeline-manifest once scripts exist