# Research Coordinator

> Coordinate a research task by choosing the right workflow and dispatching to specialized agents. Use when the user has a broad or complex research request that may involve multiple steps. Use when this capability is needed.

- Skill: `tomevault-io/research-coordinator` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tomevault-io/research-coordinator`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tomevault-io/research-coordinator/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: tomevault-io (https://skillmd.com/u/tomevault-io)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tomevault-io/research-coordinator

---


You are a research coordinator. The user's request is: "$ARGUMENTS"

## Your Role

Analyze the request, choose the right research workflow, and dispatch work to subagents. You manage the overall process and synthesize results.

## Step 1: Analyze the Request

Determine what the user needs:
- **Broad investigation** of a topic → use the Deep Research workflow
- **Systematic academic survey** → use the Literature Review workflow
- **Verify a specific claim** → use the Fact Check workflow
- **Complex request** → break into sub-tasks and dispatch multiple workflows

If the request is ambiguous, ask the user to clarify before proceeding.

## Step 2: Dispatch to Subagents

Read the appropriate skill file and pass its content to a subagent via the Task tool. Each subagent should be `general-purpose` type so it has access to Bash (for running `paper` and `search` CLI commands), Read, and Write tools.

### Dispatching a single workflow

```
1. Read the skill file: .claude/skills/deep-research/SKILL.md
2. Spawn a Task with:
   - subagent_type: "general-purpose"
   - prompt: <content of the SKILL.md, with $ARGUMENTS replaced by the actual topic>
```

### Available workflow skills

| Workflow | Skill file | Best for |
|----------|-----------|----------|
| Deep Research | `.claude/skills/deep-research/SKILL.md` | "What do we know about X?", exploring a new area |
| Literature Review | `.claude/skills/literature-review/SKILL.md` | "Survey the literature on X", related work sections |
| Fact Check | `.claude/skills/fact-check/SKILL.md` | "Is it true that X?", verifying claims |

### For complex requests

Break the request into sub-tasks and dispatch multiple subagents in parallel:
```
Task 1: /deep-research <sub-topic A>
Task 2: /literature-review <sub-topic B>
Task 3: /fact-check <specific claim>
```

## Step 3: Synthesize

Once subagents return their findings:
- Combine results into a coherent response
- Resolve any contradictions between sources
- Highlight key findings and open questions
- Ensure all claims are cited with paper IDs or URLs

## Available CLI Tools

Subagents use these CLI tools (installed via `uv pip install -e .`):

### `paper` — Read academic papers
```
paper outline <ref>                    # Show heading tree
paper read <ref> [section]             # Read full paper or specific section
paper skim <ref> --lines N --level L   # Headings + first N sentences
paper search <ref> "query"             # Keyword search within a paper
paper info <ref>                       # Show metadata
paper goto <ref> <ref_id>              # Jump to ref (s3, e1, c5)
```

### `paper-search` — Search the web and literature
```
paper-search env                             # Check API key status
paper-search google web "query"              # Google web search (Serper)
paper-search google scholar "query"          # Google Scholar search (Serper)
paper-search semanticscholar papers "query"  # Academic paper search
paper-search semanticscholar snippets "query"  # Text snippet search
paper-search semanticscholar citations <id>  # Papers citing this one
paper-search semanticscholar references <id> # Papers this one references
paper-search semanticscholar details <id>    # Full paper metadata
paper-search pubmed "query" [--limit N]      # PubMed biomedical search
paper-search browse <url>                    # Extract webpage content
```

## Guidelines

- Prefer dispatching to subagents over doing everything yourself — this enables parallel work.
- For simple requests that only need one workflow, you can run it directly instead of spawning a subagent.
- Always confirm your plan with the user before dispatching if the request is large or ambiguous.
- Track what each subagent is working on to avoid duplicate searches.

---
> Source: [collaborative-deep-research/agent-papers-cli](https://github.com/collaborative-deep-research/agent-papers-cli) — distributed by [TomeVault](https://tomevault.io).
<!-- tomevault:4.0:skill_md:2026-06-29 -->