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.
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viktorbezdek Bundle Persona DefinitionCreate individual user personas and customer archetypes — with demographics, goals, pain points, behaviors, and empathy maps — to represent the humans a product or system is built for. Use when the user asks to define personas, create user archetypes, describe target users, build empathy maps, or characterize the audience for a product or design decision. NOT for mapping stakeholders across an organization, RACI charts, or influence analysis (use persona-mapping). NOT for designing research interview flows (use elicitation).
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viktorbezdek Bundle Context CompressionREDUCING context size — summarization strategies, anchored iterative summarization, tokens-per-task optimization, compaction triggers, and probe-based evaluation. Use when the user asks to "compress context", "summarize conversation history", "implement compaction", "reduce token usage", or mentions structured summarization or long-running sessions exceeding context limits. NOT for diagnosing context failures or degradation patterns (use context-degradation), NOT for KV-cache optimization or context partitioning (use context-optimization), NOT for learning context theory or basics (use context-fundamentals), NOT for file-based offloading or scratch pads (use filesystem-context).
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viktorbezdek Bundle User Journey DesignMap user journeys with touchpoints, emotional states, pain points, and opportunities across the full arc of a user's experience over time. Use when the user asks to map a user journey, create a customer journey map, design a service blueprint, document touchpoints and friction points, or visualize the end-to-end experience of a user across multiple interactions. NOT for static navigation structure or sitemaps (use navigation-design). NOT for creating user personas or archetypes (use persona-definition). NOT for designing research interview flows (use elicitation). NOT for writing microcopy at specific touchpoints (use ux-writing).
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viktorbezdek Bundle Storytelling For StakeholdersNarrative-build workflow for turning data, technical results, or project outcomes into a compelling story for leadership, investors, or customers. Structures the narrative using proven story frameworks — 3-act, SparkLines, situation-complication-resolution (storytelling), finds the surprising angle through lateral thinking and reframing (creative-problem-solving), anchors every claim to measurable business impact using OKRs and outcome vs output framing (outcome-orientation), then iterates through craft and polish. Use when presenting quarterly results to leadership, pitching a technical initiative to non-technical stakeholders, writing a case study, summarizing a project for board review, or defending a budget request with narrative. NOT for fiction writing — use storytelling directly. NOT for investor pitches with full research — use the pitch-sprint workflow instead.
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yogsoth-ai Bundle Evidence SynthesisSynthesize multi-source evidence into structured argumentation. Weaves findings from literature, web, and analysis into coherent evidence maps with explicit strength ratings.
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yogsoth-ai Bundle False Gap FilteringDetect false gaps — search failures, already-solved gaps, and inherently unanswerable questions masquerading as research gaps.
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yogsoth-ai Skill Root Cause DrillingDrill from surface symptoms to root causes via 5 Whys, Ishikawa decomposition, and Current Reality Trees. Validates each causal link with literature evidence.
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yogsoth-ai Skill Decision SensitivityIdentify which uncertainties would actually change the research direction decision. Compute EVPI to prioritize uncertainty reduction.
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yogsoth-ai Bundle Abstraction LadderingMove between concrete and abstract framings — 3 levels up (Why?) and 3 levels down (How?) to find the most productive research level.
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yogsoth-ai Bundle Consequence FollowingFollow a provocation's logical consequences step by step to extract viable insights and new research directions.
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yogsoth-ai Skill Wickedness AssessmentApply Rittel's 10 criteria to determine if the problem is tame, complex, or wicked, and adjust research strategy accordingly.
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yogsoth-ai Bundle Gap Keyword ExtractionExtract gap-indicating sentences and phrases from papers/reviews. Identifies linguistic markers of research gaps (e.g., "remains unclear", "has not been explored", "limited understanding").
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yogsoth-ai Skill Question ReformulationReframe research questions using abstraction laddering, HMW formulation, and Socratic probing. Find the most productive level and framing for investigation.
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yogsoth-ai Skill Deep Insight Paper SearchAI-powered paper summary and search. Import of literature-engine/literature-search skill. AI summary level — cite as "AI-extracted" not "paper states".
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yogsoth-ai Skill Deep Insight Web ResearchDeep web research with full page fetching via Apify. Import of web-browsing/web-research skill. Must fetch full page — no conclusions from previews.
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yogsoth-ai Bundle Concept Matrix ConstructionBuild articles × concepts coverage matrix to visualize research landscape and identify empty cells as gap candidates.
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yogsoth-ai Skill Deep Insight Paper OverviewPaper metadata and abstract-level overview. Import of literature-engine/literature-overview skill. Abstracts only — no substantive claims without deeper reading.
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yogsoth-ai Skill Deep Insight Paper ResearchFull-text paper reading via three-pass Keshav method. Import of literature-engine/literature-research skill. Authoritative source for claims about paper content.
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yogsoth-ai Bundle Critical Path IdentificationIdentify which input uncertainties contribute most to output uncertainty and compute EVPI for research prioritization.
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yogsoth-ai Bundle Dominant Idea IdentificationIdentify dominant paradigms and assumptions constraining thinking in a research field.
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yogsoth-ai Bundle Governing Variable SurfacingApply Argyris framework to identify governing variables — the unstated rules driving behavior in a research field.
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criptogus Skill Web ResearchRuns a focused web research pass on a topic and returns a citation-backed synthesis with primary sources only. Use when the user asks for web research work, or mentions web, research.
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criptogus Skill Fin Discord ReaderRead Discord channels, servers, and messages for financial research via opencli over the desktop app's CDP connection, strictly read-only. Use when the user asks for discord reader work, or mentions fin, discord, reader.
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criptogus Skill Fin Twitter ReaderRead Twitter/X feeds, searches, bookmarks, and user profiles for financial research via opencli using the existing Chrome session, strictly read-only. Use when the user asks for twitter/x reader work, or mentions fin, twitter, reader.
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criptogus Skill Fin Linkedin ReaderRead the LinkedIn feed, posts, and finance/trading job listings for financial research via opencli using the existing Chrome session, strictly read-only. Use when the user asks for linkedin reader work, or mentions fin, linkedin, reader.
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criptogus Skill Fin Telegram ReaderRead Telegram channels and groups for financial news and market research via the tdl CLI — list chats and export/read messages, strictly read-only. Use when the user asks for telegram reader work, or mentions fin, telegram, reader.
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criptogus Skill Fin Finance SentimentFetch structured cross-source stock sentiment (Reddit, X.com, news, Polymarket) via the Adanos Finance API for research, read-only. Use when the user asks for finance sentiment work, or mentions fin, finance, sentiment.
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criptogus Bundle Brand ResearchKickoff research for a brand you haven't worked on before — web research, existing-ad analysis from the Meta Ad Library, editorial-grammar profiling, sourced + AI-generated brand assets, hook/CTA libraries, and an ad concept brief. Produces one reusable brand-context pack (brand-summary, visual-identity, competitors, audience, existing-ads, brand-grammar, an asset manifest, and a concept brief) in a single pass. Use when starting on a brand the workspace hasn't touched.
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aradotso Skill Awesome Long Horizon Agents SurveyComprehensive resource and taxonomy for long-horizon AI agents research, covering foundations, harnesses, optimization, and applications
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sahit-sai Bundle Deep CiteSource-first research workflow with explicit claims and citations.
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sahit-sai Bundle CI LogbookSummarize CI logs into high-signal failures, warnings, and likely next actions.
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sahit-sai Bundle Hydration CheckSummarize local water-intake logs and flag low-intake streaks against a daily target.
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mj-deving Bundle BeadsBeads operating system for repo and machine workflow. USE WHEN Beads, beads bootstrap, beads upgrade, beads hooks, beads topology, beads formulas, beads recovery, beads research, or making Beads foolproof across sessions and repos.
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mj-deving Skill ResearchSource-grounded research workflow for current facts, technical topics, market scans, literature reviews, and evidence-backed recommendations. Use when the user asks to research, investigate, compare sources, verify claims, summarize a topic from sources, or produce a cited briefing.
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mj-deving Skill KnowledgePersistent knowledge base — save, search, and retrieve curated content across sessions. CLI-first via `kn`. USE WHEN save this, remember this content, save to knowledge, store this, search knowledge, what do I know about, recall, find in knowledge, kn, knowledge base, save digest, save wisdom, save research, what was that insight about, look up prior.
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mj-deving Bundle PaiupgradeExtract system improvements from content AND monitor external sources (Anthropic ecosystem, YouTube). USE WHEN upgrade, improve system, system upgrade, analyze for improvements, check Anthropic, Anthropic changes, new Claude features, check YouTube, new videos, algorithm upgrade, mine reflections, find sources, research upgrade, PAI upgrade.
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 persona-definition, context-compression, user-journey-design. 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.