Research

Investigate anything, from anywhere: verify a claim, search the web, find better options, pull inspiration from stronger sources, weigh perspectives, and package technical research for a plan.

Research

/research is a first-class capability, not a stage. Any agent may invoke it at any point — standalone, or in the middle of another skill — whenever a question needs evidence before a decision. It is broader than parallel-deep-research: that sibling is a heavyweight external market/industry report; this skill is your everyday "go find out and come back with evidence."

When to use it

• Verify a claim — "is this API deprecated?", "does this library support X?", "is this the current best practice?" Confirm or refute against primary sources.
• Find a better way / better options — enumerate real alternatives and compare trade-offs.
• Web research — best practices, gotchas, current docs, changelogs, version differences.
• Inspiration / prior art — pull stronger plans, patterns, and reference implementations from better sources than memory.
• Multi-perspective — see it done the right way AND the wrong way; steelman and red-team.
• Codebase research — DRY, blast-radius, reusable patterns already in the repo.
• /plan Phase 2 bundle — the packaged deliverable plan delegates to (see "Plan bundle").

How to invoke

Standalone (user asks directly):

/research <question or claim>

From inside another skill or agent — call the Skill tool mid-flow:

Skill("research")   # then hand it the specific question + why you're asking

Always give research: (1) the concrete question or claim, (2) the decision it feeds, and (3) any constraints (stack, versions, repo area). Research returns evidence, not opinion: cited findings, and — when a caller needs it — a recommendation with the trade-offs shown.

Modes

Pick the mode(s) that fit the question. Most investigations combine two or three.

Mode A — Verify / fact-check a claim

1. State the claim in one sentence and what would confirm vs refute it.
2. Pull primary sources first (official docs, source code, specs, changelogs) via WebSearch → WebFetch. Secondary sources (blogs, SO) only corroborate.
3. Adversarially check: look for the counter-evidence, not just confirmation.
4. Return: CONFIRMED / REFUTED / MIXED / UNKNOWN + the cited evidence + a one-line reason.

Never answer a factual claim from memory. Fetch the source, cite it (URL + the line that settles it). "I'm confident" is not evidence.

Mode B — Explore options / find a better way

1. Frame the decision and the constraints (perf, safety, complexity, lock-in, maturity).
2. Enumerate 2–4 concrete options — include the "boring/obvious" one and at least one you did not start with.
3. For each: what it is, when it wins, when it loses, adoption/maintenance signal.
4. Recommend one, with the trade-off that decides it. Show the runners-up so the caller can overrule.

Mode C — Web search (quick → deep)

Depth ladder — escalate only as needed:

Search terms that work: "[stack] [feature] best practices [year]", "[library] [feature] pitfalls", "[approach] known issues". Prefer official docs via Context7/grep.app MCP when available for library/API questions.

Mode D — Inspiration / better plans from better sources

Look outward before inventing: canonical implementations, well-run OSS repos, design docs, RFCs. Pull the shape of a stronger solution and adapt it — don't copy blindly. Note the source so the plan can cite where the idea came from.

Mode E — Multi-perspective (steelman + red-team)

For anything consequential, gather both:

• Steelman (the right way) — the strongest case for the approach and how experts do it.
• Red-team (the wrong way) — failure modes, anti-patterns, "why teams regret this", security and edge-case traps.

Return both columns so the decision is made with eyes open, not just the happy path.

Mode F — Codebase research (DRY + blast-radius)

Use actual search tools — never rely on memory:

Grep("<function or concept>")   # existing implementations to reuse
Glob("**/*.<ext>")              # narrow to affected file types
Read(<match>)                   # inspect matches in context

• DRY: if a match exists, prefer "extend existing :" over "create new".
• Blast-radius (for remove/rename/replace): grep the entire repo (exact + case-insensitive
  • Glob("**/*<thing>*")), then list every hit — including package.json, install/setup scripts, CI workflows, agent config, and docs — so nothing is missed.

For broad multi-location sweeps, spawn the Explore agent and keep only its summary.

Plan bundle (what /plan Phase 2 delegates to)

When invoked by /plan for a feature's design doc, run the full technical bundle and append it under a ## Technical Research section in docs/work/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>/plan.md:

1. Web research (Mode C) — best practices, gotchas, patterns for the chosen approach.
2. OWASP Top 10 pass — for each relevant category (A01–A10): the risk, whether it applies, and the planned mitigation.
3. DRY check (Mode F) — reusable existing implementations.
4. Blast-radius search (Mode F) — required for any remove/rename/replace; every reference captured for the task list.
5. Codebase exploration — similar patterns, affected files, test infra to leverage.
6. TDD scenarios — at minimum 3: happy path, error/failure path, and one Phase-1 edge case.

The caller's HARD-GATE (in /plan) still verifies these outputs exist — research produces them; the gate enforces them. Do not treat delegation as a way to skip the gate.

Invoked mid-flow (examples)

• Mid-/validate — a security or type failure surfaces and the fix is unclear: call Skill("research") to verify the correct API/pattern against primary sources before editing (feeds the D2 root-cause trace), then return to validation.
• Mid-/dev — a decision gate fires on a spec gap: research the options (Mode B) and current best practice (Mode C) so the decision is evidence-backed, then log the decision and continue.
• Mid-/plan — an approach looks shaky during brainstorming: research alternatives and red-team the front-runner (Mode E) before committing the design.
• Any agent, any time — "before I decide, let me check" is always a valid reason to invoke.

Output contract

• Cite every non-obvious claim (URL or file:line) — findings without sources are opinions.
• Lead with the answer/recommendation, then the evidence, then the runners-up.
• When invoked by /plan, append to the design doc's ## Technical Research section (not a separate file). When invoked mid-flow, return a concise evidence-backed answer to the caller.
• Flag what you could NOT verify as UNKNOWN rather than guessing.

Integration with workflow

Utility: /status  -> Understand current context before starting

Default template:
  /plan      -> Optional default planner; delegates its Phase 2 technical research to /research
  /dev       -> Implement each task with subagent-driven TDD (may call /research at a spec gap)
  /validate  -> Type check, lint, tests, security (may call /research to root-cause a failure)
  /ship      -> Push + create PR
  /review    -> Address PR feedback
  /verify    -> Post-merge health check

Research is callable standalone or from any of the above — it is a capability, not a gate.

Tips

• Evidence beats memory — always fetch and cite; never settle a fact from recall.
• Escalate depth deliberately — quick WebSearch first; reach for deep-research or parallel-deep-research only when a single search can't answer it.
• Both perspectives — for consequential calls, always red-team, not just steelman.
• Delegation ≠ skipping gates — when /plan delegates the bundle, its HARD-GATE still checks OWASP + 3 TDD scenarios + blast-radius are present.