Cnki Researcher

CNKI research workflow

Use the sibling cnki-* skills when installed; read each before its stage. If one is missing, report the missing module and perform only stages supported by the available tools. These are instructions, not automatic subagent spawning.

1. State the database, query/fields, period, sort, requested count and citation scope.

Default to Chinese journal articles. For “since 2023” use 2023-01-01 through today.

1. Use cnki-search or cnki-advanced-search, cnki-navigate-pages and cnki-parse-results.

Freeze a unique, source-linked result list before screening; retain site rank.

1. Select the requested subset based on title/abstract relevance to the question.

Explain selection and retain original list numbers. Do not substitute newer or better-known papers outside the list without clearly reporting the change.

1. Use cnki-paper-detail. Full-text analysis requires retrieved readable full text;

otherwise label abstract/preview analysis and identify missing evidence. When downloads are requested, use cnki-download with PDF as the default. Create the local Downloads/CNKI/YYYY-MM-DD folder first (user's local date; respect a supplied destination), then save and verify files there. Reuse the current session and follow cnki-download's bounded progress-based waiting. Preserve an explicit user format choice; otherwise do not substitute CAJ when PDF is unavailable. Continue accessible items and report the shortfall.

1. Use cnki-export for the requested citation set. If “export the citations” is

unspecified, export the listed set and a separate selected-subset file.

1. Before delivery compare all titles/identifiers against extracted records,

ensure no duplicate filler entries, and verify exported counts and file paths.

1. Return the search manifest, result list, reading analysis, .bib artifact and

any limitations. Never claim a blocked stage completed.

Durable screening, comparison and resume

When the user requests screening tables, empirical comparisons, or resumable work, use cnki-resume from task start and save each verified result immediately. Use cnki-screening for criterion-linked include/exclude/uncertain decisions, and cnki-evidence-table for per-field evidence with page/section locators. Follow their shared schema; use one task file through these stages. Existing local readable papers can be analyzed without downloading again. Missing sibling modules are reported, never implicitly installed.

On continuation, read the existing queue before any web action. Reuse completed records and verified files; inspect running transfers before retry. Preserve the original query/criteria and selection scope. Export the workbook even if access blocks some records, while explicitly reporting unfinished work and abstract-only analysis. Do not claim structural evidence validation proves scholarly accuracy.

Browser and access

Optional paid screening: use cnki-jev only when installed and explicitly enabled for this task with an authorized title/abstract upload scope and budget. Read its SKILL.md before use. Otherwise keep the baseline workflow. Jev proposals do not replace frozen criteria, source evidence, or the existing screening ledger.

Use the user's available browser connector. Claude Code: Chrome DevTools MCP (list pages → select page → take snapshot → interact). Codex: use its available browser skill/tool and documented API. WorkBuddy: the browser-skill CLI (bsk) — bsk session start → bsk navigate --session → bsk snapshot → interact → bsk session stop (mandatory, even on error paths). Read that tool's instructions first; do not assume Chrome DevTools names exist in the other runtimes. If no connector is available, report the missing dependency, without installing it implicitly.

Start at an already-open CNKI official/authorized institutional entry. Otherwise default to the domestic CNKI site, in this order:

1. https://kns.cnki.net/kns8s/defaultresult/index — domestic 检索 entry (verified

working: renders 主题 + 学术期刊 controls and the result table, and honours an institutional login).

1. https://www.cnki.net/ — domestic homepage, only if the entry above is unreachable.

Never start at an overseas mirror (oversea.cnki.net, global.cnki.net, data.oversea.cnki.net, scholar.cnki.net, ar.oversea.cnki.net or similar). Detection: if the page title is "CNKI Overseas" or the host contains oversea, you are on the international platform — www.cnki.net may silently redirect there depending on the network exit point. Navigate straight to the kns.cnki.net entry above instead of staying on the mirror. Preserve the current institution route and observed links; do not reconstruct proxy URLs or trust a hostname solely because it contains "cnki". Inspect current visible controls before acting; refresh observations after navigation. Do not invent selectors, search API payloads, article URLs, download hashes or session tokens. Use read-only DOM extraction only if supported and grounded in observed markup. If an operation fails twice without progress, preserve completed records and report the blocker. Login and CAPTCHA require user intervention under the runtime policy; do not evade detection or bypass access controls. Do not export cookies or credentials. Close owned temporary tabs when finished, retaining only a page needed for user handoff.

Overseas fallback (last resort only)

Fall back to an overseas mirror only when the domestic site is genuinely unreachable or blocked for the user — for example kns.cnki.net times out, returns a network/ISP block page, or shows an access blocker with no institutional route available. When that happens:

1. Tell the user explicitly that the domestic site failed, state the observed

reason (timeout, block page, missing institution entitlement), and say you are switching to the international platform.

1. Record which platform produced every result: the overseas edition indexes a

different corpus, so counts, full text and export formats are not comparable with domestic CNKI results.

1. Re-check whether an authorized domestic route exists before continuing; if the

user has one, ask before settling for the overseas edition. Do not treat a plain redirect to oversea.cnki.net as "the domestic site is down" by itself — navigate to the kns.cnki.net entry first.

Evidence

This release is a UI-guided workflow, not a tested site scraper. In development, www.cnki.net redirected to oversea.cnki.net; Chinese language selection reached /chn/, exposing 主题, 搜索, 高级检索 and 出版物检索. Clicking 高级检索 on the overseas platform triggered a puzzle CAPTCHA before query submission. A later run opened https://kns.cnki.net/kns8s/defaultresult/index directly: the domestic 检索 page rendered 主题/学术期刊 controls and a result table, an institutional login was recognised, and a 主题 keyword search returned 总库 / 学术期刊 / 学位论文 counts without a CAPTCHA. The domestic entry is therefore the verified default; the overseas platform is fallback only (see above). Domestic full-text download and export controls remain unverified. Treat domestic and international platforms separately. Never report an attempted click as a successful search/export/download. Keep publication date, online-first date and indexing date distinct. Missing fields stay missing.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: longkou1988
• Source: longkou1988/cnki-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.