Browse-Then-Answer Episode

Separate a browsing phase that gathers quoted references from a later answer phase that composes only from those references and the question.

WebGPT episodes have two phases. While browsing, Quote stores title, domain, and extract as references; browsing ends when the model issues End: Answer, hits a max-action limit, or exceeds max total reference length. If at least one reference exists, a new answering prompt (question + numbered references) asks for the final answer — no further browser tools.

This agent control flow topology keeps evidence gathering distinct from synthesis, pairs with token-efficient quote observations, and makes citation support checkable offline under citation-backed agent answers. Prefer explicit phase transitions over letting the model answer mid-browse when you need grounded QA; expose early-exit labels (nonsense / controversial) as first-class agent episode termination modes.

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Sources

• WebGPT (Nakano et al.), §2