Title lifecycle: empty at creation, auto-generated after deep research

Creation:
- Title stays empty if user doesn't provide one
- Dashboard shows "⏰ Pending: ARK will decide later" for empty titles

Deep research:
- If title is empty, query uses only idea + venue (no placeholder title)
- If title is provided, includes it in query as before

Title generation (NEW):
- After deep research completes, planner generates a proper academic title
  from idea + venue + deep research context
- Written to config.yaml, syncs to DB via dashboard's title auto-sync

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: JihaoXin

ark/deep_research.py

@@ -73,12 +73,9 @@ def build_research_query(config: dict) -> str:
     goal_anchor = config.get("goal_anchor", "")
     research_idea = config.get("research_idea", "") or config.get("idea", "")
 
-    # Skip temporary/placeholder titles
-    is_real_title = title and not title.endswith("...") and title not in ("Untitled Project", "Pending Deep Research")
-
     query_parts = []
 
-    if is_real_title:
+    if title:
         query_parts.append(
             f"I am writing an academic paper titled \"{title}\" "
             f"targeting {venue} conference."

ark/pipeline.py

@@ -686,13 +686,64 @@ def _run_research_phase(self):
 
         self.log("", "RAW")
 
+        # Step 1.5: Auto-generate paper title if not provided
+        self._generate_title_if_needed()
+
         # Step 2: Extract citations from Deep Research report
         self._bootstrap_citations_from_deep_research()
 
         self.log_section("Research Phase Complete")
 
     # ==================== Citation Bootstrapping ====================
 
+    def _generate_title_if_needed(self):
+        """Auto-generate paper title from idea + venue + deep research if not provided."""
+        title = self.config.get("title", "")
+        if title:
+            return  # User provided a title, keep it
+
+        idea = self.config.get("idea", "")
+        venue = self.config.get("venue", "")
+        if not idea:
+            return
+
+        # Read deep research summary for context
+        dr_file = self.state_dir / "deep_research.md"
+        dr_summary = ""
+        if dr_file.exists():
+            dr_summary = dr_file.read_text()[:2000]
+
+        self.log_step("Generating paper title...", "progress")
+        result = self.run_agent("planner", f"""Generate a concise, academic paper title for the following research.
+
+## Research Idea
+{idea[:2000]}
+
+## Target Venue
+{venue}
+
+## Background Research (if available)
+{dr_summary}
+
+Output ONLY the title — one line, no quotes, no explanation. The title should be:
+- Concise (8-15 words)
+- Descriptive of the main contribution
+- In the style of {venue or 'a top-tier ML conference'} papers
+""", timeout=120)
+
+        if result and result.strip():
+            new_title = result.strip().strip('"').strip("'").split('\n')[0].strip()
+            if len(new_title) > 10:
+                self.config["title"] = new_title
+                self.log(f"Generated title: {new_title}", "INFO")
+                # Update config.yaml on disk
+                import yaml
+                config_path = self.code_dir / "config.yaml"
+                if config_path.exists():
+                    cfg = yaml.safe_load(config_path.read_text()) or {}
+                    cfg["title"] = new_title
+                    config_path.write_text(yaml.dump(cfg, default_flow_style=False, allow_unicode=True))
+
     def _bootstrap_citations_from_deep_research(self):
         """Extract paper titles from Deep Research report via LLM, then fetch BibTeX via API.
 

ark/webapp/routes.py

@@ -727,7 +727,7 @@ async def api_list_projects(request: Request, scope: str = "mine"):
             paper_title = _read_paper_title(pdir)
             if paper_title and paper_title != p.title:
                 update_project(session, p, title=paper_title, name=paper_title)
-            display_title = paper_title or p.title
+            display_title = paper_title or p.title or "\u23f0 Pending: ARK will decide later"
             d = {
                 "id": p.id,
                 "name": p.name,
@@ -780,16 +780,9 @@ async def api_create_project(
     # Generate project ID: full UUID
     project_id = str(uuid.uuid4())
 
-    # Title: use provided title, or extract from idea as temporary title
-    if not title and idea:
-        # Take first ~80 chars of idea, cut at word boundary
-        snippet = idea[:80].strip()
-        last_space = snippet.rfind(' ')
-        if last_space > 40:
-            snippet = snippet[:last_space]
-        title = snippet + ("..." if len(idea) > len(snippet) else "")
-    if not title:
-        title = "Untitled Project"
+    # Title: keep as-is. If user didn't provide, it stays empty.
+    # Dashboard will show "⏰ Pending" for empty titles.
+    # Title will be auto-generated after deep research.
 
     pdir = _project_dir(settings, user.id, project_id)
     pdir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)