# AI Council Review: Research Bridge

## Reviewers
- **Architect:** System design, API contracts, data flow
- **DevOps:** Deployment, monitoring, infrastructure
- **QA:** Testing strategy, edge cases, validation
- **Security:** Authentication, abuse prevention, data handling
- **Cost Analyst:** Pricing, efficiency, ROI

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## Review Questions

### Architect
1. **Q:** Is the async pattern throughout the stack justified?
   **A:** Yes. SearXNG + LLM calls are I/O bound; async prevents blocking.

2. **Q:** Why FastAPI over Flask/Django?
   **A:** Native async, automatic OpenAPI docs, Pydantic validation.

3. **Q:** Should the synthesizer be a separate service?
   **A:** Not initially. Monolith first, extract if scale demands.

4. **Q:** Kimi for Coding API compatibility?
   **A:** OpenAI-compatible, but requires special User-Agent header. Handled in client config.

### DevOps
1. **Q:** SearXNG self-hosted requirements?
   **A:** 1 CPU, 512MB RAM, ~5GB disk. Can run on same host or separate.

2. **Q:** Monitoring strategy?
   **A:** Prometheus metrics + structured logging. Alert on error rate >1%.

### QA
1. **Q:** How to test LLM responses deterministically?
   **A:** Mock Kimi responses in unit tests. E2E uses real API (no cost concerns with existing subscription).

2. **Q:** What defines "acceptable" answer quality?
   **A:** Blind test: 20 queries, human rates Research Bridge vs Perplexity. Target: ≥80% parity.

### Security
1. **Q:** API key exposure risk?
   **A:** Kimi key in env vars only. Rotate if compromised. No client-side exposure.

2. **Q:** Rate limiting sufficient?
   **A:** 30 req/min per IP prevents casual abuse. Global limit as circuit breaker.

3. **Q:** User-Agent header leak risk?
   **A:** Header is hardcoded in backend, never exposed to clients. Low risk.

### Cost Analyst
1. **Q:** Realistic monthly cost at 1000 queries/month?
   **A:** **$0** - Kimi for Coding via existing subscription, SearXNG self-hosted. vs $15-30 with Perplexity.

2. **Q:** When does this NOT make sense?
   **A:** If setup effort (~10h) not justified for expected query volume. But at $0 marginal cost, break-even is immediate.

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## Consensus

**Proceed with Phase 1.** Architecture is sound, risks identified and mitigated. **Zero marginal cost** makes this compelling even at low query volumes.

**Conditions for Phase 2:**
- Phase 1 latency <2s for search-only
- Test coverage >80%
- SearXNG stable for 48h continuous operation
- User-Agent header handling verified

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**Review Date:** 2026-03-14  
**Status:** ✅ Approved for implementation