Tech

IRIS Tech Research

Software and technology research skill. This is the domain-specific skill for investigating technology topics: CLI tools, libraries, frameworks, APIs, infrastructure, security, and any software-related subject. It guides users through topic definition, parameter configuration, and investigation launch via conversational interaction.

Workflow Routing

How It Works

1. User invokes IRIS tech research with a technology topic
2. Investigate workflow activates:
   • Checks for existing investigations (offers to continue or start new)
   • Gathers topic through conversational refinement
   • Confirms understanding with the user
   • Generates a request file in .requests/ with GUID-based ID
   • Creates a UUID run folder in .research/{uuid}/agents/
   • Transitions to the orchestrate workflow
3. Orchestrate workflow takes over:
   • Spawns researcher agents in parallel
   • Monitors completion (mandatory wait gate — never skips agents)
   • Spawns the synthesizer agent
   • Status tracked in request file (researching → synthesizing → completed)
4. Results appear in .research/{uuid}/SUMMARY.md

Cumulative Research

Investigations support multiple runs for iterative deepening:

• Each run creates a new UUID folder under .research/
• The request file tracks all runs in research-runs
• Use /iris:research continue to deepen an existing investigation
• The continue workflow reads previous SUMMARY.md and injects context into new agents

Principles

Conversational Refinement

Never assume you understand the topic. Always:

1. Restate what you understood
2. Ask for confirmation using ask_user
3. Only proceed after explicit user approval

Progressive Disclosure

Start with the broad topic, then drill into specifics:

1. What do you want to investigate?
2. What specific aspects interest you most?
3. What questions should the investigation answer?
4. What language should the final report be in?

Request File Contract

Every investigation produces a request file in .requests/ with:

• Full frontmatter (name, topic, language, status, etc.)
• Detailed body describing the investigation scope
• Updated by the orchestrator as the investigation progresses

Context Files

• See workflows/investigate.md for the main investigation workflow
• See ../research/workflows/continue.md for deepening investigations
• See ../research/workflows/status.md for checking investigation status
• See ../research/workflows/archive.md for archival

Guardrails

This skill and all agents it triggers are read-only research tools.

• The ONLY writable directory is .research/ and .requests/
• No code execution that modifies the system
• No privilege escalation
• No network requests to external APIs on behalf of targets
• No destructive filesystem operations