Research

Research

Answer one practical question with enough evidence to change a decision. This skill is for applied research: which issue is worth tackling, whether a proposal is grounded, what changed in an ecosystem, or which claims a public artifact can safely make. It is not an open-ended browsing session or a summary for its own sake.

The result should make the operator's posture clearer: build, write, avoid, defer, compare, or gather a named missing fact. Prefer a small number of well-supported findings over a broad report whose conclusions cannot be traced.

Where it fits

research consumes governed source packets. Fetch evidence with web-fetch or a provider reader, or use the local-files runner to admit bounded UTF-8 files through Runx's native filesystem reader. Both paths converge on the same source and content-digest index. URLs, paths, model memory, operator context, and target names do not become evidence merely because they were supplied.

The packet is a reusable primitive for deep-research, content-pipeline, ecosystem-brief, ghostwrite, product planning, and other decision workflows. It does not publish, notify, or mutate a provider. Those later operations keep their own authority, approval, and readback boundary.

How it works

1. State a bounded objective and the decision the research should inform.
2. Supply up to the declared source limit as governed readback packets, or name bounded local files through the dedicated runner. Runx indexes their provenance, observation times, source digests, and content digests before synthesis.
3. Synthesis separates verified facts from inference, explains relevance, records confidence, and carries open questions rather than filling gaps with plausible prose.
4. Every material claim cites an admitted source digest. Every recommended option cites the evidence on which its rationale depends.
5. The deterministic verifier rejects unknown citations, digest drift, and unsupported decision support before the packet is released.

Return needs_more_evidence when the admitted sources cannot support the decision. Return not_worth_publishing when a finding is sound but irrelevant to the stated deliverable. Neither state is a failure; both prevent weak evidence from turning into confident downstream content.

Inputs and result

• objective is the exact question to answer.
• source_packets are bounded provider or fetch readback packets with stable provenance and content digests. local-files instead accepts contained paths and never requires HTTP or a hosted connector.
• domain, deliverable, operator_context, and target_entities narrow the analysis. They are interpretation context, never source evidence.

The research packet contains the bounded brief, evidence log, decision options, risks, open questions, admitted source evidence, and deterministic validation. Consumers should carry the packet and its digest forward rather than rewriting its findings into an untraceable summary.

Stop conditions

• Stop when no valid source packet was supplied, evidence is stale for the decision, or source identity cannot be verified.
• Never cite an unknown source digest or treat a URL as proof that it was read.
• Label inference as inference and lower confidence when evidence conflicts.
• Do not manufacture balance by inventing an opposing claim with no source.
• Keep source content out of public artifacts unless the downstream skill is allowed to use it and respects quotation and privacy constraints.
• Route requests to browse, publish, message, or mutate to the skill that owns that boundary.

Example

An operator asks whether a proposed integration belongs in the next release and supplies a changelog readback, an issue snapshot, and an official API document. The packet can compare the evidence, state which user problem is verified, and recommend build, defer, or investigate. It cannot cite a remembered forum post or operator hunch as verified demand, and it should name the missing evidence if that gap changes the recommendation.