# Product > Explore a PRODUCT hands-on and prove every claim visually — don't just read about it. Install or sign up, DRIVE the real product through each user journey, screenshot every meaningful step, record a short clip of the headline flows, then put landing-page CLAIMS next to what the product ACTUALLY did. Produces a highly-visual artifact: favicon/logo-tagged product cards, per-journey flow diagrams, screenshot strips, an embedded clip, and a claims-vs-reality table — never one idle screenshot and a wall of text. Composes research:research for the public intel, browser + secrets to drive the surface, and artifacts to render. Triggers on: /research:product, 'explore hands-on', 'how does actually work', 'test out and show me', 'does really do X', 'walk through 's features', 'compare these products by actually using them', 'evaluate 's user flows'. - Skill: `phnx-labs/product` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add phnx-labs/product` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/phnx-labs/product/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Design & Media - Author: phnx-labs (https://skillmd.com/u/phnx-labs) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/phnx-labs/product --- # research:product — use the product, then show it working You were asked to research a **product**. The failure mode this skill exists to kill is the report that *read about* the product — a page of accurate prose, one screenshot of an idle landing page, and a feature list nobody watched run. That doc proves nothing. A product is verified by **driving it**: you sign in, you click through the real journeys, you capture each step, you record the headline flow, and you put what the marketing *said* next to what the product *did*. Humans read visually — so the output leads with the product working, not with paragraphs. Product / question: `$ARGUMENTS`. | This skill | Not this skill | |---|---| | **Drive** the product, capture the journey, prove claims visually | `research:research` — answer a text question across engines | | Signs up, clicks through real user flows, screenshots every step, records a clip | `demo` — prove **your own** shipped thing, before/after | | Output: journey diagrams + screenshot strips + a clip + a claims-vs-reality table | `browser` alone — one tab, by hand, no synthesis | ## The two bars you may never skip 1. **Every feature you report is SHOWN being used** — a screenshot of it mid-flow, or a clip. A feature you only read in the docs is a **claim**, labeled as such, never stated as observed. If you couldn't drive it (paywall, version gate), say so — don't launder a doc line into a demonstrated fact. 2. **The journey is captured, not summarized.** A step you took but didn't screenshot didn't happen, as far as the report is concerned. One idle-landing-page screenshot is the exact defect this skill replaces. ## 1. Frame — the product, the journeys, the visual identity - **Name the target(s)** and the **specific question** (a product is explored *for* something: "how does Devin support background agents", not "look at Devin"). `--compare a,b,c` explores a set on the **same journeys** for a fair matrix; default is **one product, deep**. - **List the real user journeys** you'll walk — the 3–6 flows a real user actually does (onboard → first result; the core loop; the differentiated feature; the pricing/limits wall). These become the report's spine and each gets its own diagram + strip. - **Grab the visual identity up front.** Fetch each product's **favicon/logo** and embed it as a base64 `data:` URI so every product card and table row is tagged with its mark (self-contained — no CDN; see the `artifacts`/`design` no-external-asset rule): ```bash curl -sL "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=&sz=128" -o /tmp/.png # or the site's /favicon.ico, or the logo from its press/brand page base64 -w0 /tmp/.png # → data:image/png;base64,… inline in the artifact ``` - Pick `--depth`: `quick` (one product, top journey + claims), `standard` (default: all journeys, clip on the headline flow), `deep` (every journey clipped, pricing/limits probed, edge cases). ## 2. Get the public picture first — compose `research:research` Before you drive anything, know what to verify. Run the multi-engine sweep (`research:research`) to pull the **claimed** surface and the **sentiment**, in parallel: - **Positioning + claimed features + pricing** — the landing page, docs, changelog (Codex/web). - **What real users say** — X/Twitter, Reddit, HN: complaints, "it doesn't actually do X", launch reactions (**Grok** — its privileged X data is the point). - **The wedge** — what it claims *only it* does. This is the list you'll try to break in §4. Stage these as the **claim column** for §5. A claim with no source is dropped, not carried. ## 3. Get in — install or sign up (driven, signed in, real) You are not limited to reading the landing page. Get **inside** the product: - **Credential exists** in `agents secrets` → sign in and drive the real account. - **No credential** → default to a **free/trial signup** only if the owner's run policy allows it (this creates a real third-party account — an outward-facing act; honor `--signup ask|auto|creds-only`, default **creds-only**: sign in if we have creds, else drive the public surface + docs and **flag the login wall** rather than silently creating accounts). Never fake being inside. - **CLI/installable product** → install it for real on a fleet box and run it end-to-end (`agents run` / a worker), quoting actual output — the eve exploration did this part right. - Drive with **`agents browser`** (web) or **`agents computer`** (native desktop, element mode), signed in. If a step needs a secret, inject it from `agents secrets` — don't stop. ## 4. Drive every journey — screenshot each step, record the headline flow This is the step the weak report skipped. For **each journey** from §1: - **Walk it end-to-end** as a real user would, and **screenshot every meaningful step** — the empty state, the input, the mid-action, the result. Not one capture: a **strip** that reads as a filmstrip of the flow. Zoom / crop to the decisive interaction so a reader sees *what happened*, not a full-window thumbnail. - **Record a short screen clip** of the 1–2 headline journeys (`--record on`, default for `standard`/`deep`). Capture it with the always-available surface — `agents browser`'s screen capture, or `ffmpeg` on the recorded frames — and trim to 10–20s; that clip of the core loop is worth more than any paragraph. If the extras `create` plugin is installed, polish it with `create:edit`/`animator` (trim, caption, speed) — **optional, never required**: with no extras, ship the raw trimmed clip or an animated GIF from the step frames. `--record off` skips it. - **Feed real, representative input** — a real repo, a real document, a real prompt of the shape the product is *for*. Toy "hello world" input hides exactly the behavior you're evaluating. - **Capture the limits** — hit the pricing/quota/error wall on purpose and screenshot it; that's where claims and reality diverge most. Save every capture into the run's artifact dir; name them by journey + step so §6 can assemble the strips deterministically. ## 5. Claims vs reality — the differentiated finding Merge §2's claim column with §4's captures into the table that makes this report worth reading: | Landing-page claim | What it actually did (with capture) | Verdict | |---|---|---| | "Runs background agents autonomously" | *screenshot: agent ran 3 steps then stalled awaiting input* | ⚠ Partial — needs a nudge | | "One-click deploy" | *clip: deploy succeeded in 22s* | ✓ As claimed | | "Works with any repo" | *screenshot: errored on a monorepo* | ✗ Overstated | - **✓ As claimed** — you drove it and it did the thing (cite the capture). - **⚠ Partial / caveated** — it does it, but with a limit the marketing omits. - **✗ Overstated / couldn't verify** — it didn't, or was walled. Say which; never guess a ✓. The gap between the landing page and the driven product **is** the research finding. ## 6. Synthesize — one highly-visual artifact Author a `kind: report` artifact and render it with the `artifacts` skill. It **must** carry, per product: - A **favicon/logo-tagged product card** (identity at a glance — §1). - A **per-journey flow diagram** — an inline-SVG of the steps/states you walked (distinct from any architecture diagram; this is the *user's path*). Use the `artifacts` diagram conventions. - The **screenshot strip** for each journey, and the **embedded clip** for the headline flow. - The **claims-vs-reality table** from §5. - For `--compare`: one **comparison matrix** of the products across the same journeys, each row favicon-tagged, plus a "reach for which when" split. - **Honest gaps** — what you couldn't drive and why (version gate, paywall), named, not buried. A product exploration that ships as mostly prose with one screenshot is **incomplete** — send it back through §4. ## 7. Deliver where the owner will see it - **Inspect headlessly first** — render, screenshot the rendered page, view it; both themes, no overflow, images resolve. (See it before you call it done.) - **Show it on the owner's interactive box** in one reused tab: ```bash ROOT_DATE=$(date +%F); scp "$ARTIFACT.html" :/tmp/ agents browser navigate --device --url file:///tmp/.html ``` - **Promote the durable output** to the project's artifacts home (`.agents/artifacts//product-.{md,html}` by default) with the captures beside it; `share` it if it's meant to leave the machine. - Close with an honest line: what you **drove and verified** vs. what you **only read**. ## Anti-patterns (each is the weak report this skill replaces) - **One idle screenshot.** A landing page or "Ready" status is not the product working. Capture the flow, not the front door. - **Describing instead of driving.** "It supports X" with no capture is a claim, not a finding. Open it, do X, screenshot X. - **No clip, no journey diagram.** The headline flow gets a clip; every journey gets a flow diagram. Text-only is the failure mode. - **Features claimed, never shown.** If you didn't drive it, it's in the claim column marked unverified — never asserted as observed. - **Toy input.** Real, representative data or a same-shape sample; toy input hides the failures. - **Silently skipping the login wall.** No creds and policy is `creds-only`? Flag it and do the public surface — don't fake being inside, don't silently create accounts. - **Leaving it in `/tmp` or as prose in scrollback.** Durable, visual, on the owner's screen. ## Compose map - Public intel (claims + sentiment) → `research:research` (`agents run codex|grok|antigravity`). - Get in + drive the surface → the `browser` skill (web) / `computer` skill (native) + `secrets`. - Real-surface discipline (signed in, real inputs, capture every step) → the `demo` skill. - Clip the headline flow → `agents browser` screen capture / `ffmpeg` (always available); polish with `create:edit`/`animator` only if the extras `create` plugin is installed. - Render the visual artifact + diagrams → the `artifacts` skill; publish → `share`. - A wall only the owner can clear (paid signup, an enterprise gate) → `agents feed post "" --blocked`.