Content revision 4e771eaf0390cc87b6c7c6fd8469f3508f6ceeec7119472e6c1ccf17e2e1e5d2

## Researching gaps in technical guidance

AI for IT Operations
Source ID ai-it-operations:researching-gaps-in-technical-guidance
Original https://www.henryw.me/#/ai-it-operations#researching-gaps-in-technical-guidance

Several knowledge gaps can concern the same problem. Certificate expiry, renewal and a replacement that fails to take effect all concern the certificate lifecycle. I grouped related gaps into a shared research objective, giving the agent a reason to explore their connections. The individual questions stayed attached to the objective as concrete checks on what the research needed to cover. That objective guided where to look. I used AI to find relevant starting pages, then directed a crawler to follow links and collect documentation that could answer the questions. Starting near the relevant material mattered on large vendor sites, where following links from the homepage could consume the search budget before reaching the guidance needed. As it collected material, the agent assessed which questions now had supporting evidence and what each additional page contributed.

An unresolved question could lead it to look for another starting page. Once the questions were covered and further crawling added little useful information, it could send the proposed sources for review. Combining question coverage with information gain gave the research a stopping condition, alongside page and time limits.