The default dispatch was broken by a GitHub Actions falsy ternary

.github/workflows/collect.yml

@@ -410,15 +410,24 @@ jobs:
           # than failing, because the ladder's last rung is the fetch provider.
           SERPAPI_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.SERPAPI_API_KEY }}
           RESEARCH_KIT_TRANSPORT: firecrawl-cli
-          # 'auto' becomes the empty string, which is falsy in the ladder and therefore
-          # means "no explicit choice" rather than "a provider called auto". Pinning a
-          # value is what makes two runs of the same topic comparable.
-          RESEARCH_KIT_SEARCH_TRANSPORT: ${{ inputs.search_transport == 'auto' && '' || inputs.search_transport }}
+          # NOT a ${{ cond && '' || value }} ternary. In GitHub Actions the empty string
+          # is FALSY, so the true-branch collapses and the expression yields the third
+          # operand - it passed the literal "auto", which is not a provider, and every
+          # default dispatch failed with "unknown search provider". The input is carried
+          # raw and blanked in the shell below, where an empty string is just an empty
+          # string.
+          SEARCH_TRANSPORT_INPUT: ${{ inputs.search_transport }}
           MAX_PAGES: ${{ inputs.max_pages }}
           DEPTH: ${{ inputs.depth }}
         run: |
           set -e
           cd "$SCRATCH"
+          # 'auto' means "no explicit choice": leave the variable unset so the ladder
+          # falls through to its own detection. Any other value pins the provider.
+          if [ "${SEARCH_TRANSPORT_INPUT:-auto}" != "auto" ]; then
+            export RESEARCH_KIT_SEARCH_TRANSPORT="$SEARCH_TRANSPORT_INPUT"
+            echo "search side: pinned to $SEARCH_TRANSPORT_INPUT by dispatch input"
+          fi
           # Which side won, recorded in the log before anything is spent. A run that
           # silently changed meters would be the kind of thing nobody notices until a bill.
           if [ -n "${SERPAPI_API_KEY:-}" ]; then

research-kit/README.md

@@ -395,7 +395,7 @@ node research-kit/bin/selftest.mjs            # all of it
 node research-kit/bin/selftest.mjs gate hook  # just these files
 ```
 
-860 tests, offline, no key and no network. The runner **awaits** every test, so `ok` means
+861 tests, offline, no key and no network. The runner **awaits** every test, so `ok` means
 the assertions settled (ADR-0021), and each test is raced against a watchdog
 (`RESEARCH_KIT_TEST_TIMEOUT`, default 60s).
 

research-kit/test/workflow-embedded-scripts.test.mjs

@@ -121,3 +121,32 @@ test('the extractor finds a deliberately broken script, so the check is not asle
   assert.equal(found.length, 1, 'the extractor did not find an obvious embedded script');
   assert.throws(() => new vm.Script(found[0].body), 'a broken script compiled cleanly, so the parse check proves nothing');
 });
+
+test('no workflow uses the GitHub Actions falsy-ternary footgun', () => {
+  // `${{ cond && '' || value }}` does NOT mean "empty when cond". In GitHub Actions the
+  // empty string is falsy, so the true-branch collapses and the expression yields the
+  // THIRD operand. collect.yml used it to blank an 'auto' input and instead passed the
+  // literal string "auto" into RESEARCH_KIT_SEARCH_TRANSPORT, so every DEFAULT dispatch
+  // died with `unknown search provider "auto"`.
+  //
+  // It survived review because the comparison runs that exercised the feature all pinned
+  // an explicit provider. The default path - the one almost every real dispatch takes -
+  // was never run until a research collection tried it.
+  // COMMENT LINES ARE SKIPPED, and finding that out is why this comment exists: the first
+  // version of this guard flagged the sentence above, which describes the footgun in order
+  // to warn about it. A check that cannot tell a value from prose about the value reports
+  // the documentation as the defect.
+  const dir = path.join(KIT_ROOT, '..', '.github', 'workflows');
+  const offenders = [];
+  for (const file of fs.readdirSync(dir).filter((f) => f.endsWith('.yml'))) {
+    const lines = fs.readFileSync(path.join(dir, file), 'utf8').split(/\r?\n/);
+    lines.forEach((line, i) => {
+      if (line.trim().startsWith('#')) return;
+      for (const m of line.matchAll(/\$\{\{[^}]*&&\s*''\s*\|\|[^}]*\}\}/g)) {
+        offenders.push(`${file}:${i + 1}: ${m[0].trim()}`);
+      }
+    });
+  }
+  assert.deepEqual(offenders, [],
+    'a ternary whose true-branch is the empty string yields its third operand instead');
+});