Establish Freedom Intelligence lab foundation and baseline research.

Add INTENT/SCOPE, daily-brief playbook, activity-core definition (disabled),
workplans FI-WP-0001..0003, baseline field survey with open-weight collection
recommendations, and inventory catalog candidates for the model reserve.

briefs/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+# Research briefs
+
+Daily curated digests of interesting progress in AI **models**, **methods**,
+**harness**, and **tooling**, filtered through axes A–D.
+
+## Layout
+
+```text
+briefs/
+├── README.md                 # this file
+├── _template.md              # copy for each new day
+└── YYYY/
+    └── MM/
+        └── YYYY-MM-DD.md     # one brief per calendar day (UTC or lab local — state in front matter)
+```
+
+Example path: `briefs/2026/07/2026-07-23.md`
+
+## Cadence
+
+| Mode | When |
+| ---- | ---- |
+| **Daily** | Preferred operating rhythm when the lab is active |
+| **Skip empty days** | If there is no meaningful signal, either omit the file or write a short “no material delta” brief |
+| **Weekly rollup** | Optional later; not required for foundation |
+
+First operating mode is **manual** (human or agent drafts from the template). Automation is out of scope until the template is validated by at least one real brief.
+
+## How to write a brief
+
+1. Copy `briefs/_template.md` to `briefs/YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD.md`.
+2. Fill only sections with signal; leave others as `*(none)*` rather than inventing news.
+3. Cite primary sources (papers, model cards, release notes, repos, pricing pages).
+4. Flag **collection candidates** with enough metadata for inventory review.
+5. Keep **lab implications** short and actionable (or omit).
+
+## Design principles
+
+See `INTENT.md` and `history/InitialExploration.md`:
+
+- Signal over noise
+- Actionable for the lab
+- Price and access aware
+- Reproducible sources
+- Just-in-case bias for rare/high-leverage open weights
+
+## Baseline vs daily
+
+The **baseline field survey** is not a daily brief:
+
+- `research/2026-07-24-baseline-field-survey.md`
+
+Daily files under this tree are **deltas** from that baseline and prior dailies.
+Playbook: `docs/daily-brief-playbook.md`. Sources: `docs/sources-allowlist.md`.
+
+## Axes reminder
+
+| Axis | Section in template |
+| ---- | ------------------- |
+| A | Frontier & commercial |
+| B | Edge / local / open |
+| C | Training & specialization |
+| D | Harness & fleet |