# Documentation — Research Context & Project Journey

Curated documentation that supports the CyberRanger CA1 thesis. Includes the complete version evolution, mirrored research blog posts, and an index linking back to the live blog.

## What's Here

| File / Folder | Description | Read Time |
|---|---|---|
| [`version-evolution.md`](./version-evolution.md) | **Complete V1 → V43 journey** across 6 eras — Genesis, Exploration, Refinement, Production Hardening, Architecture Maturation, QLoRA Validation. 40+ versions documented with quick-reference table, per-version detail, and key-lessons-by-era summary. Used as Appendix C in the CA1 paper. | 15 min |
| [`research-blog.md`](./research-blog.md) | Curated index of 6 research blog posts with both live URLs and offline-mirror links. Citation format included for academic reuse. | 3 min |
| [`blog/`](./blog) | Offline mirrors of 6 research blog posts (point-in-time snapshots). The live blog at https://davidtkeane.github.io is the canonical source; these copies are frozen for academic record. | — |

## Recommended Reading Order

1. **Start here:** [`version-evolution.md`](./version-evolution.md) — gives the full journey from dental chatbot (V1) to QLoRA-validated production model (V42-gold-wrapped) in 15 minutes.
2. **Then:** [`research-blog.md`](./research-blog.md) — index page that points to the underlying experimental write-ups.
3. **Deep dive:** [`blog/2026-03-08-from-rangerbot-to-cyberranger-v42-the-full-story.md`](./blog/2026-03-08-from-rangerbot-to-cyberranger-v42-the-full-story.md) — long-form narrative of the same journey.

## Why These Docs Are Here

The Modelfiles, training data, and evaluation scripts are the primary research artefacts. The documents in this folder provide the **interpretive layer** — the journey, the failed iterations, the regressions, the breakthroughs — that transforms 86 Modelfiles into a coherent research story.

For examiners, this is the fastest path into the project without reading every Modelfile.
