Scanners find the work
Use it when agents only act if a human remembers to ask.
Most agent setups are reactive. Someone opens an issue, mentions the agent, and the agent responds. The work that nobody files never happens.
A scanner is a scheduled job that looks for work and creates it.
The pattern
Run each scanner on its own schedule. Each one answers a different question.
| Scanner | Question it answers |
|---|---|
| Literature scan | What new papers affect entries we already have? |
| Knowledge gap scan | Which entries are missing required fields? |
| Stalled work scan | Which issues and pull requests have gone quiet? |
| Compliance scan | Which entries fall below our quality bar? |
DisMech runs all four. Its cadences live in
.github/cron-profiles.yaml, separate from the workflow files, so you can
change how often something runs without editing the job.
Match the model to the risk
Not every scanner needs your best model. DisMech runs its pull request reviewer
on a top-tier model always, and lets low-risk scanners use cheaper ones. The
per-job model choice lives in .github/agent-config.yaml.
It also has a low_effort label, so a human can send one specific task to a
cheaper model by hand.
culturebotai-claw assigns a tier per agent in the same way: documentation on a cheap model, integrity auditing on an expensive one.
Start with one
A literature scanner is usually the best first one. It produces issues a curator can judge quickly, and it does not change any curated content on its own.
Set the cadence low to begin with. A scanner that files thirty issues a day gets ignored within a week, and an ignored scanner is worse than no scanner.
Keep tuning it
Scanner cadence is one of the dials that regulating the loop is about. Ask regularly whether each scanner is too eager or not eager enough.