Do Your Research

Do your research

A drift corrector for research discipline. The method, re-anchor, audit the work in flight, correct forward, report, and the tone that firing this is not an accusation, lives in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/context/re-anchor-audit-correct.md. Read it; this file adds only what is specific to research discipline.

The discipline this re-anchors

Research and verification before assertion. Resolve its source of truth per the method doc's ladder: if the consuming project states a research/verification discipline in its own CLAUDE.md or .claude/rules/, re-anchor THAT. Otherwise re-anchor this portable baseline:

• Assert nothing you cannot point to a source for. A claim labelled "known", "obvious", or "from memory" is unverified until a fetched source or the live environment backs it.
• Verify every concrete specific. A path, filename, default, flag, signature, or any "standard/conventional X" is a claim. Check it against an authoritative source or the actual environment before stating it as fact, most critically right before the user acts on it.
• Frame the problem before reaching for a solution. Name what is actually being solved; do not let the first solution shape decide it.
• Never act on ambiguity. Surface the unknown and resolve it rather than assuming a value.
• Training-data recall is a starting point, not an answer. Treat it as unverified until confirmed from a current, authoritative source.

"An authoritative source" is a bar with three dimensions

Naming a source is not clearing the bar. A source has a tier. Tool output and docs fetched this turn outrank secondary synthesis; ungrounded recall does not clear the bar at all until it is promoted. A claim needs independent corroboration. Citations that trace back to one upstream pool are one source, not three. And a claim about anything that ships releases needs a recency check against the current upstream, because first-party docs lag their own releases.

What clears each dimension resolves down the same ladder as the discipline itself: what the consuming project declares wins; failing that, the contract /discovery:research states as mandatory disciplines, when the discovery plugin is installed; failing both, the floor below. The floor is this skill's own baseline, not a copy of a heavier tier's numbers. It is deliberately lighter, because this tier settles one claim mid-conversation rather than running a research pass:

• Tier. At least one source fetched THIS turn: the live environment, tool output, or the upstream artifact itself. Recall, and a summary of a source read in place of the source, are both below the floor.
• Corroboration, before a claim carries a decision, a second source from a DIFFERENT upstream pool. One pool restated by three intermediaries is one source; where no second pool exists, say that instead of counting the restatements.
• Recency. For anything that ships releases, a check against the current release or changelog, not only the page that named the value.

Whichever rung resolves, hold all three dimensions and cite the rung that actually applied.

Two directions. Grounding, and checking what was already said

This corrector runs in both directions. They share the discipline and fail differently, so knowing which one fired tells you what to look for:

• Preventive. Grounding a claim BEFORE it is asserted. Fires at the moment of assertion; skipping it ships a wrong claim.
• Detective. Checking claims ALREADY asserted, which is what "fact-check that" asks for. Fires after the fact; skipping it leaves a wrong claim standing while later work builds on it.

Direction is not the skill boundary. DEPTH is. Both directions run here inline and in the sibling fan-out below; neither skill owns one direction.

Audit. What to look for

Name concrete, located findings (per the method doc's step 2, self-audit):

• a claim asserted without a fetched source, or flagged "known" / "obvious" / "from memory";
• a concrete specific stated without live or authoritative verification;
• a claim resting on one source, or on corroborators that all trace to the same upstream pool. Corroboration count is part of the bar, not a bonus;
• a version, default, flag, or API claim checked against a source that predates the current release, with no changelog cross-check;
• a solution proposed before the problem was framed;
• verification skipped where the environment could have been checked;
• an answer resting on training data alone.

Correct each forward now: research the unbacked claim, verify the specific against the live environment or an authoritative source, re-derive a premature solution from the actual problem, and flag whatever stays unverifiable rather than smoothing over it. Where your own judgement is the suspected source of bias, re-derive in a fresh-context subagent.

Escalating to a verification fan-out

When your own judgement is the suspected source of bias across MANY load-bearing claims, not just the current one, or a request to "fact-check" the whole session wants provable coverage, escalate by invoking the sibling /discipline:do-your-research-deep via the Skill tool. It enumerates a typed full inventory of the session's claims and verifies each at a configurable depth, and reports a per-item ledger.

What this skill does NOT do

• Not about code cleanliness. Clean-implementation and comment verbosity are out of scope, a simplification or comment-hygiene tool fits those.
• Does not fabricate a citation or a violation. An honest "nothing to correct" or "this stays unverified" is the right output when true.

Gotchas

• "Verifying" a claim against the same recall that produced it is not verification, the research-specific trap. Reach for a real source or the live environment; where your own judgement is the suspect across many claims, /discipline:do-your-research-deep is the fresh-context escalation.