Sweep Ai Safety

---
name: sweep-ai-safety
description: "Sweep recent AI safety research (Anthropic, OpenAI, GDM, Apollo, Redwood, METR, arXiv). Use on 'sweep AI safety', 'what is new in alignment'."
---

# Sweep AI Safety Research

A hybrid skill: a curated **source registry** + **topic glossary** Claude can consult during research, and a **Python script** that fetches feeds and produces a dated markdown digest of the last 7 days.

## When to invoke

- User asks: "what's new in AI safety", "sweep alignment research", "any recent papers on <term>", "weekly safety digest", "what did Anthropic/Apollo/Redwood post recently"
- Before research planning — to check whether a question is already addressed by recent work
- When a user mentions an unfamiliar term (inoculation prompting, OOCR, exploration hacking, metagaming) — consult `terms.md`
- Periodic — schedule via `/loop 7d /sweep-ai-safety` or a cron routine

## Quick start

```bash
# Default: last 7 days, all sources, markdown to stdout
uv run ~/.claude/skills/sweep-ai-safety/sweep.py

# Save to a dated file
uv run ~/.claude/skills/sweep-ai-safety/sweep.py --output digest.md

# Wider window
uv run ~/.claude/skills/sweep-ai-safety/sweep.py --since 30d

# Filter by topic term (matches in title/summary)
uv run ~/.claude/skills/sweep-ai-safety/sweep.py --term "reward hacking"

# Single source
uv run ~/.claude/skills/sweep-ai-safety/sweep.py --source anthropic-alignment

# arXiv keyword search (uses term registry by default)
uv run ~/.claude/skills/sweep-ai-safety/sweep.py --arxiv-only
```

## Architecture

```
sweep-ai-safety/
├── SKILL.md          # this file
├── sources.yaml      # source registry (orgs, blogs, feed URLs)
├── terms.md          # topic-term glossary with short definitions
└── sweep.py          # fetcher (PEP 723, uv run directly)
```

### Source registry (`sources.yaml`)

One entry per source. Fields:

```yaml
- key: anthropic-alignment        # short id used in --source
  org: Anthropic
  name: Alignment Science blog
  url: https://alignment.anthropic.com/
  rss: https://alignment.anthropic.com/rss.xml   # null if no feed
  lane: rss | scrape               # rss != null <=> lane: rss
  kind: blog | papers | aggregator | researcher
  verified: false                  # flip to true after first successful fetch
  notes: ...
```

The script does NOT trust `rss:` blindly — on first run, it reports which feeds resolved and which need manual URL correction. Edit `sources.yaml` to fix.

### Two-lane reality (RSS vs scrape)

Most curated orgs do **not** expose a working RSS feed. Live-verified state:

- **RSS lane** (have a real feed, fetched by the feed reader): `openai-blog`, `openai-alignment`, `metr`, `redwood`. These are the only sources that produce items from a plain `sweep.py` run.
- **Scrape lane** (`rss: null`, no usable feed — fetched via WebFetch on the landing url): `anthropic-alignment`, `anthropic-redteam`, `anthropic-research`, `openai-safety`, `apollo`, `transluce`, `deepmind-safety`, `far-ai`, `truthful-ai`, `owain-evans`, `alphaxiv-safety`. Anthropic (both blogs) and Apollo are SPAs/404 — their `/rss.xml` serves HTML, not XML.
- **arXiv** (`arxiv-terms`): scrape-lane by the rss-null convention, but fetched by the script's dedicated arXiv export-API path, not the generic WebFetch scrape step.

**A scrape-lane source returning 0 items is EXPECTED** from a plain `sweep.py` run — the script only reads RSS feeds. Those sources surface only when the scrape step runs (WebFetch the `url`). Treat "0 items from a scrape-lane source" as "not fetched", not "nothing published". The scrape-lane fetch implementation lands in a later phase; until then, scrape-lane sources are checked manually via WebFetch (see reference-mode workflow).

### Zotero (dedup + sink)

Zotero is **not** a fetch source. It's the dedup reference (what's already been collected) and the storage sink (where surfaced items land). It's handled by the downstream pipeline, not by the sweep fetch itself — `sweep.py` neither reads from nor writes to Zotero.

### Topic glossary (`terms.md`)

A flat list of tracked terms with one-sentence definitions and (where useful) seminal paper anchors. Used:

1. By Claude as a reference when a user mentions a term — read the entry and the linked paper
2. By `sweep.py` for cross-reference: items mentioning any registered term are tagged in the digest

Add a new term: append to `terms.md`. Optionally add it to the `arxiv_search_terms:` list in `sources.yaml` so the script searches arXiv for it.

## Reference-mode workflow (no script)

When the user mentions a term or asks about recent work without wanting a full sweep:

1. Open `terms.md` — does the term have a glossary entry? Read it
2. Open `sources.yaml` — identify the likely source(s) (e.g., scheming → Apollo; sandbagging → Anthropic alignment / METR; inoculation prompting → Truthful AI / Owain Evans)
3. Use `WebSearch` or `WebFetch` on the relevant source's blog / publications page
4. If a paper title is mentioned, look it up via arXiv API:
   - `curl -sL "http://export.arxiv.org/api/query?search_query=ti:%22<title%20words>%22&max_results=5"` (Atom XML)

## Sweep-mode workflow (script)

1. `uv run ~/.claude/skills/sweep-ai-safety/sweep.py --output "$HOME/scratch/safety-digest-$(utc_date).md"`
2. Review the digest. Flag any failed fetches — they indicate URLs that drifted
3. Update `sources.yaml` if URLs need correction; mark `verified: true` for ones that worked
4. Read the high-signal items (matched-term or known-author hits) in full via WebFetch

## Failure modes & gotchas

| Issue | Why | Fix |
|-------|-----|-----|
| **Most sources return 0 items** | RSS URL drifted or site has no feed | Open the org's blog page, find the actual feed URL, update `sources.yaml`. If no feed exists, the org has to be checked manually via WebFetch |
| **arXiv requests get throttled** | arXiv rate-limits at ~5 req/3s; sticky penalty 30-60s if exceeded | Script already batches arXiv term searches. If still throttled, wait 60s |
| **Same paper appears under multiple sources** | A paper can be on arXiv + an org blog + alphaxiv | Script dedupes by arXiv ID and by normalized title (case + punctuation collapsed). Subtitles or site-specific suffixes will still slip through — flag duplicates manually |
| **Term doesn't match because of variant spelling** | "OOCR" vs "out-of-context reasoning" vs "out of context reasoning" | Add aliases to the term entry in `terms.md` and the regex in `sources.yaml` |
| **Sandbox blocks external HTTP** | Most non-allowlisted hosts return connection error from Claude Code's sandbox | Run with `dangerouslyDisableSandbox: true`, or run from a normal shell |
| **Item is in the right time window but old content** | Some blogs republish/redate posts | Cross-check the canonical URL date; trust arXiv `submittedDate` over blog dates |

## Verification policy (research integrity)

This skill surfaces candidates. **Always verify before acting on a finding:**

- Don't cite a paper from the digest without WebFetching the actual source
- Don't claim a term is "from paper X" without checking — the script's glossary is a starting point, not ground truth
- If the digest says "no items from <source> in last 7d", that means either nothing was published OR the feed isn't working — distinguish before relying on the absence

## Adapting

- **Add a source**: append to `sources.yaml`, set `verified: false`, run sweep, update if it works
- **Add a tracked term**: append to `terms.md` with a one-line definition; optionally add to `sources.yaml` `arxiv_search_terms:` for arXiv inclusion
- **Different cadence**: pass `--since 14d` / `--since 30d`; or schedule via `/loop 14d /sweep-ai-safety` (or as a routine via `/schedule`)
- **JSON output for programmatic use**: pass `--json` (emits one item per line, NDJSON)
- **Conference papers**: the weekly sweep relies on arXiv catching venue cross-posts — tag an item with its venue when the arXiv `comment` field names one (e.g. "Accepted at NeurIPS 2025"). A separate episodic `--conference <venue>` roundup mode (scraping accepted-paper lists plus safety workshops like SoLaR) is planned for when proceedings drop — NeurIPS/ICLR/ICML land ~3x/year, not weekly, so it doesn't belong in the weekly cadence.