How do I install the Researcher skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add cutec-chris/researcher in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Researcher safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Researcher?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Researcher free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free. This skill is licensed under MIT.

Who published Researcher?

cutec-chris (@cutec-chris) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Researcher by cutec-chris — Agent Skill

Name: Researcher
Author: cutec-chris

Researcher

Collect web sources into named research projects and answer questions from them. Scrapes URLs (recursive crawl, PDFs, YouTube transcripts) into a project, then answers questions grounded in the gathered sources via semantic/keyword search. Use for "research X", building a sourced dossier on a topic, or querying previously gathered material — as opposed to a one-shot web search (perplexica/searxng). Commands: create, list, add, query, delete, rename (syntax in the skill instructions).

cutec-chris 9835eba 4 files · 25.1 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

Researcher Skill

How to use

The query contains a researcher command. Run it via the Bash tool. The user ID is automatically provided via the PAWLIA_USER_ID environment variable — do NOT pass it manually.

python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py <command> [args...]

Commands

Command	Bash call	Description
`create <name> <desc>`	`python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py create "<name>" "<description>"`	Create a new research project
`list`	`python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py list`	List all projects
`add <project> <url> [depth]`	`python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py add "<project>" "<url>" [depth]`	Scrape URL and save to workspace (depth for recursive crawling)
`query <project> <question>`	`python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py query "<project>" "<question>"`	Search the project's documents
`delete <project>`	`python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py delete "<project>"`	Delete a project
`rename <old> <new>`	`python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py rename "<old>" "<new>"`	Rename a project

Storage

Documents are saved as markdown under:

$PAWLIA_SESSION_DIR/{user_id}/research/{project}/

This lives beside the workspace, not inside it, so scraped sources never leak into the workspace listing, BM25 search, git push or the DreamWiki.

No RAG backend or DreamWiki is involved. The embed index (.index/) is built lazily on the first query call and invalidated automatically after each add.

Search

With embedding config: semantic search via cosine similarity on bge-m3 (or configured model)
Without embedding config: keyword search fallback

Step-by-step instructions

Parse the query to identify the command and arguments.
Run the command using the Bash tool.
Return the output to the user.

Error handling

If the script exits with an error, report: "Research error: "

---name: researcherdescription: Collect web sources into named research projects and answer questions from them. Scrapes URLs (recursive crawl, PDFs, YouTube transcripts) into a project, then answers questions grounded in the gathered sources via semantic/keyword search. Use for "research X", building a sourced dossier on a topic, or querying previously gathered material — as opposed to a one-shot web search (perplexica/searxng). Commands: create, list, add, query, delete, rename (syntax in the skill instructions).license: MIT---# Researcher Skill## How to useThe query contains a researcher command. Run it via the Bash tool.The user ID is automatically provided via the `PAWLIA_USER_ID` environment variable — do NOT pass it manually.```python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py <command> [args...]```### Commands| Command | Bash call | Description ||---------|-----------|-------------|| `create <name> <desc>` | `python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py create "<name>" "<description>"` | Create a new research project || `list` | `python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py list` | List all projects || `add <project> <url> [depth]` | `python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py add "<project>" "<url>" [depth]` | Scrape URL and save to workspace (depth for recursive crawling) || `query <project> <question>` | `python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py query "<project>" "<question>"` | Search the project's documents || `delete <project>` | `python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py delete "<project>"` | Delete a project || `rename <old> <new>` | `python <scripts_dir>/researcher.py rename "<old>" "<new>"` | Rename a project |## StorageDocuments are saved as markdown under:```$PAWLIA_SESSION_DIR/{user_id}/research/{project}/```This lives **beside** the workspace, not inside it, so scraped sources neverleak into the workspace listing, BM25 search, git push or the DreamWiki.No RAG backend or DreamWiki is involved. The embed index (`.index/`) is builtlazily on the first `query` call and invalidated automatically after each `add`.## Search- **With embedding config**: semantic search via cosine similarity on bge-m3 (or configured model)- **Without embedding config**: keyword search fallback## Step-by-step instructions1. Parse the query to identify the command and arguments.2. Run the command using the **Bash** tool.3. Return the output to the user.## Error handlingIf the script exits with an error, report: "Research error: <error message from stderr>"

Frequently asked questions