Research & Search
Research agent skills teach AI agents to gather and synthesize information properly: literature reviews, competitive analysis, web research with citations, and structured summaries. Each SKILL.md encodes a method, not just a prompt, so results stay consistent across runs.
-
lyndonkl Skill Paper Relevance FilterScores a candidate paper against a keyword watchlist and a relevance-criteria document, returning KEEP/DROP/REVIEW with a one-line rationale and a 0-100 relevance score. Combines keyword-match strength, criteria-fit, and a historical-context check (was this paper or its preprint already covered in a recent digest). Domain-neutral - usable for any literature-scan workflow. Use after fetching candidate papers from bioRxiv, medRxiv, or PubMed and before clustering or synthesis. Trigger keywords - paper relevance, filter papers, keep or drop, score papers, relevance rationale.
-
lyndonkl Skill Conf Abstract EnrichmentThicken a thin or missing conference-session abstract through targeted web research so short, noisy text becomes classifiable — pulling the speaker's recent work, the linked repo or paper, and the company/product to add signal. Every enriched claim carries provenance (source URL + retrieval date) and a confidence, the enriched text is stored separately from the original (never overwriting it), and enrichment is gated so already-rich abstracts are left alone. Conference-agnostic. Use when an event record has been flagged thin by program extraction, when a session lacks enough text to classify, or when a key axis (depth, topic) is low-confidence. Trigger keywords - abstract enrichment, thicken abstract, enrich session, speaker research, thin abstract, runtime web search for talks.
-
lyndonkl Bundle Narrative Evidence LedgerBuilds the evidence ledger that narrative work is allowed to be built on, before any structure is chosen. Locks the frame (unit, denominator, window, population boundary), atomizes material into findings with evidence classes A-F and re-findable pointers, triages every causal claim L1 MECHANISM to L5 CONJECTURE with permitted and banned verb sets, runs one-way promotion from finding to claim to beat, and keeps a DEAD column of everything a veto killed. Use before outlining or drafting any evidence-based narrative, when auditing whether a draft's claims are actually sourced, when a piece needs a provenance layer for handoff, or when user mentions evidence ledger, claim ledger, provenance, sourcing, causal grading, denominator lock, cherry-picking, or circular citation.
-
lyndonkl Skill Experiential Kolb TeachingRuns a vault learning module as a Kolb experiential cycle (Concrete Experience -> Reflective Observation -> Abstract Conceptualization -> Active Experimentation) instead of a lecture. Opens with an experience, withholds the explanation, draws the claim out of the learner with Socratic question ladders scaled by Bloom level, routes the earned claim to an evergreen note, and closes with a retrieval check. Enforces desirable-difficulty discipline — never summarize for the learner, never name the concept before they have reconstructed its mechanism. Use when tutoring a genomics/ML module, designing a Kolb session, or deciding whether to explain or to ask. Trigger keywords — Kolb cycle, experiential teaching, tutor a module, desirable difficulty, never summarize, Socratic ladder, run a session.
-
lyndonkl Bundle Brainstorm Diverge ConvergeApplies structured divergent-convergent thinking to generate many creative options, organize them into meaningful clusters, then systematically evaluate and narrow to the strongest choices. Balances creative exploration with disciplined decision-making. Use when exploring product ideas, solving open-ended problems, generating strategic alternatives, developing research questions, designing experiments, or when user mentions brainstorming, ideation, divergent thinking, generating options, or evaluating alternatives.
-
lyndonkl Bundle Scientific Manuscript ReviewGuides systematic multi-pass review and editing of scientific manuscripts (research articles, reviews, perspectives) to improve clarity, structure, scientific rigor, and reader comprehension. Use when reviewing or editing research manuscripts, journal articles, or perspectives, when user mentions manuscript, paper draft, article, research writing, journal submission, reviewer feedback, or needs to improve scientific writing.
-
lyndonkl Bundle Domain Research Health ScienceGuides clinical and health science research through PICOT question formulation, evidence hierarchy assessment, bias evaluation (Cochrane RoB 2, ROBINS-I), outcome prioritization, and GRADE certainty rating. Use when formulating clinical research questions, evaluating health evidence quality, prioritizing patient-important outcomes, conducting systematic reviews or meta-analyses, creating evidence summaries for guidelines, or assessing regulatory evidence.
-
rysweet Skill Researching TopicsPerforms quick research using web search and synthesis when user asks about unfamiliar topics, new technologies, or needs current information. Activates on questions like 'how does X work', 'what is Y', or when encountering unknown concepts. For deep comprehensive research, suggests knowledge-builder command.
-
posthog-skills Bundle Posthog Pls Big FishResearch, qualify, and suggest outreach for PostHog big fish product-led leads — large companies (500+ or 1000+ employees) using PostHog on free tier without a payment method. Use this skill when a TAE needs to work a big fish alert from Salesforce. Triggers on 'work this big fish lead', 'research this product-led lead', 'big fish alert', '500+ employees no payment method', '1000+ employees no payment method', or any request involving a large-company product-led lead that needs research, qualification, and an outreach recommendation. Also trigger when a TAE pastes Salesforce lead details with matching criteria like 'Big fish alert' or '500+ employees, no payment method'.
-
posthog-skills Bundle Posthog Customer Deep DiveUse before emailing a PostHog customer, replying to one, or joining a call, and for any request to research a PostHog account. Fires on "/posthog-customer-deep-dive" and on natural language like "deep dive on X", "look up this customer", "help me reply to Y", "prep me for my call with Z", from an email address, domain, account name, or Vitally account id. Researches the account across Vitally and project 2 usage queries, then drafts an email (first touch, follow-up, or reply) or a call-prep brief, every recommendation carrying a live docs link.
-
ovachiever Bundle Research GrantsWrite competitive research proposals for NSF, NIH, DOE, and DARPA. Agency-specific formatting, review criteria, budget preparation, broader impacts, significance statements, innovation narratives, and compliance with submission requirements.
-
ovachiever Bundle Venue TemplatesAccess comprehensive LaTeX templates, formatting requirements, and submission guidelines for major scientific publication venues (Nature, Science, PLOS, IEEE, ACM), academic conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, CHI), research posters, and grant proposals (NSF, NIH, DOE, DARPA). This skill should be used when preparing manuscripts for journal submission, conference papers, research posters, or grant proposals and need venue-specific formatting requirements and templates.
-
ovachiever Bundle Citation ManagementComprehensive citation management for academic research. Search Google Scholar and PubMed for papers, extract accurate metadata, validate citations, and generate properly formatted BibTeX entries. This skill should be used when you need to find papers, verify citation information, convert DOIs to BibTeX, or ensure reference accuracy in scientific writing.
-
ovachiever Bundle Scientific Critical ThinkingEvaluate research rigor. Assess methodology, experimental design, statistical validity, biases, confounding, evidence quality (GRADE, Cochrane ROB), for critical analysis of scientific claims.
-
mims-harvard Bundle Tooluniverse Cs SetupInstall or update ToolUniverse in Claude Science — create the conda env, install the tooluniverse pip package, and (re)build the tooluniverse-research skill by fetching the current workflow library from GitHub. Use for first-time setup, upgrading the ToolUniverse version, refreshing the bundled workflows after an upstream release, or reinstalling on a new machine.
-
mims-harvard Skill Tooluniverse ImmunologyImmunology research workflows: antibody-antigen interactions, T/B cell repertoire, MHC/HLA binding prediction, autoimmune disease genetics, vaccine epitope mapping. Uses IEDB, IMGT, SAbDab, UniProt. Use for adaptive immunity questions, immune response analysis, antibody/TCR/BCR characterization, immunogenicity prediction, and immune-pathway-to-disease mapping.
-
mims-harvard Bundle Tooluniverse MetabolomicsMetabolomics research — metabolite identification, study analysis, and database searches across HMDB, MetaboLights, Metabolomics Workbench, KEGG. Use for annotating mass-spec features to known metabolites, finding metabolomics studies of a disease, and structured metabolomics research reports with metabolite-pathway mapping.
-
mims-harvard Skill Tooluniverse NeuroscienceNeuroscience research workflows: neuroanatomy, neural circuits, neurotransmitter biology, neurological/psychiatric disease genetics, neural-protein function. Uses Allen Brain Atlas, WormBase (C. elegans connectome), UniProt for neural proteins, PubMed for primary literature. Use for brain-region biology, neural development, neurodegeneration mechanisms (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS), and synaptic-protein characterization.
-
mims-harvard Bundle Tooluniverse Drug ResearchComprehensive drug profiling — mechanism, primary/secondary targets, drug interactions, clinical-trial status, adverse events (FAERS), pharmacogenomics, and approval history. Use for full drug investigation reports, 'tell me about drug X' queries, and assembling drug profiles for clinicians, researchers, or regulatory work.
-
mims-harvard Skill Tooluniverse Install SkillsDetect and auto-install missing ToolUniverse research skills. Checks common Claude Code/Cursor/Codex skill directories for the canary file, and installs any missing skills if none found. Use when the plugin's research skills aren't loading, when migrating between clients, or when verifying a skill installation.
-
mims-harvard Skill Tooluniverse Plant GenomicsPlant genomics and biology research — PlantReactome pathways, Ensembl Plants gene structure, POWO species taxonomy, UniProt annotation, KEGG plant pathways. Handles polyploidy (wheat hexaploidy etc.) and homeologous gene copies. Use for crop-gene annotation, plant secondary metabolism queries, and plant-disease/stress-response biology.
-
mims-harvard Skill Tooluniverse Drug RegulatoryDrug regulatory and approval research — FDA substance registry, ATC/EPC classification, EMA decisions, generic-drug status, FDA Orange Book exclusivity, NDA/BLA pathways. Use for jurisdiction-aware approval status (FDA vs EMA), generic vs brand availability, exclusivity expiry tracking, and regulatory pathway selection. Always specifies the market when reporting status.
-
mims-harvard Bundle Tooluniverse Disease ResearchGenerate comprehensive disease research reports covering genetics (causal genes, GWAS, OMIM), pathways (Reactome, KEGG), drugs (existing therapies, repurposing candidates), clinical trials, epidemiology (prevalence, incidence), and phenotypes (HPO). Use for full disease overviews, comprehensive disease characterization, and orphan/rare-disease profiling.
-
mims-harvard Bundle Tooluniverse Infectious DiseaseRapid pathogen characterization and drug repurposing for outbreaks. Combines pathogen genomics (NCBI, BVBRC), host immune response (IEDB), drug-target databases (ChEMBL, DGIdb), and literature surveillance (PubMed/EuropePMC). Use for emerging-pathogen profiling, antiviral candidate identification, and outbreak intelligence reporting.
-
mims-harvard Skill Tooluniverse Ecology BiodiversityEcology, biodiversity, and conservation biology research — species identification (GBIF, NCBI Taxonomy), invasive species impact, ecosystem dynamics, conservation status (IUCN), niche ecology. Use for biodiversity questions, species comparison, invasion biology, conservation prioritization, and ecology-related literature search.
-
mims-harvard Skill Tooluniverse Metagenomics AnalysisMicrobiome and metagenomics analysis using MGnify, GTDB taxonomy, ENA sequencing data, and EuropePMC literature. Covers taxonomic classification, genome quality assessment, biome-clinical phenotype linkage, and pathway interpretation. Use for amplicon/shotgun metagenomics study analysis.
-
mims-harvard Skill Tooluniverse Drug Mechanism ResearchTrace drug mechanism of action — primary target → downstream signaling → pathway perturbation → tissue/organ effect → clinical outcome. Uses DrugBank, ChEMBL, KEGG, Reactome, STRING. Use for understanding how a drug works, identifying off-target effects, mechanism-based combination therapy design, and writing mechanism sections of reports.
-
mims-harvard Bundle Tooluniverse Literature Deep ResearchDeep literature review — PubMed, EuropePMC, bioRxiv preprints, citation networks, evidence synthesis. Disambiguates queries, runs collision-aware searches, grades evidence T1-T4, and produces structured reports. Use for systematic literature review, meta-analysis evidence collection, and detailed answer-with-citations workflows.
-
mims-harvard Skill Tooluniverse Clinical Data IntegrationEnd-to-end drug safety review integrating FDA labels, FAERS adverse event reports, PRR/ROR disproportionality, pharmacogenomic biomarkers, clinical trial data, and published literature. Use for regulatory drug safety reviews, comprehensive pharmacovigilance reports, label-vs-real-world AE comparison, and clinical decision support for drug safety.
-
mims-harvard Skill Tooluniverse Residue Functional Mechanism InterpretationGiven a set of residues in a protein, explain WHY they are functionally critical by combining structural context (binding interface, ligand pocket, core, secondary structure), UniProt features (active sites, binding sites, PTM sites, disulfides), optional SAE feature evidence, and optional DMS data. Accepts residues from any source: DMS hotspots (top-K by max effect), ClinVar recurrent variants, literature-reported hot regions, evolutionarily conserved positions, or user-curated lists. Returns a per-cluster mechanism call: catalytic / ligand-binding / interface / structural-core / PTM / regulatory / unknown.
-
sundial-org Skill Last30days 2Research any topic across Reddit, X/Twitter, and the web from the last 30 days. Synthesizes findings into actionable insights or copy-paste prompts.
-
sundial-org Bundle Perplexity 2Deep search via Perplexity API. Three modes: search (quick facts), reason (complex analysis), research (in-depth reports). Returns AI-grounded answers with citations.
-
sundial-org Bundle Perplexity 3Use Perplexity API for web-grounded AI search and research. Use when user needs up-to-date information, multi-step reasoning with web citations, exhaustive research with source references, factual queries with current events, or competitive analysis. Default when user mentions Perplexity, needs current information, or requires source citations.
-
sundial-org Bundle Perplexity 4Use Perplexity API for web-grounded AI search and research. Use when user needs up-to-date information, multi-step reasoning with web citations, exhaustive research with source references, factual queries with current events, or competitive analysis. Default when user mentions Perplexity, needs current information, or requires source citations.
-
sundial-org Bundle Web Search PlusUnified search skill with Intelligent Auto-Routing. Uses multi-signal analysis to automatically select between Serper (Google), Tavily (Research), and Exa (Neural) with confidence scoring.
-
terminalskills Bundle OpenbbAccess financial data for analysis, quantitative research, and AI agents using OpenBB platform — stocks, crypto, forex, macro economics, alternative data. Use when: building financial analysis tools, feeding market data to AI agents, creating quantitative research pipelines, accessing free financial data APIs.
Frequently asked questions
What are Research & Search agent skills?
Research agent skills teach AI agents to gather and synthesize information properly: literature reviews, competitive analysis, web research with citations, and structured summaries. Each SKILL.md encodes a method, not just a prompt, so results stay consistent across runs.
Which Research & Search skills are most installed?
Popular Research & Search skills on SkillMD right now include tooluniverse-drug-research, paper-relevance-filter, conf-abstract-enrichment. Rankings shift as installs change; sort this page by "Most installs" for the live list.
Do Research & Search skills work with Claude Code and Cursor?
Yes. Every skill here ships as a SKILL.md file, an open format that works in Claude Code, Claude.ai, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and 60+ other agents. Install one with npx skillmds@latest add <owner>/<name>, or copy the file into your agent's skills directory.