Research

Research

Retrieval-first research, multi-AI orchestration, and expert validation.

Absorbed Skills

This skill consolidates: web-search, delegate, thinktank, introspect.

Routing

Explicit sub-capability (user names one)

If first argument matches a keyword, route directly to that reference:

No sub-capability (default): MANDATORY PARALLEL FANOUT

You MUST fan out to multiple sources. A single WebSearch is NOT research.

Research means gathering signal from many vantage points simultaneously. WebSearch alone is a lookup, not research. The whole point of this skill is multi-source triangulation.

REQUIRED: Launch ALL of these in a single message (parallel Agent/Bash calls):

1. Exa search — Bash: curl -s https://api.exa.ai/search -H "x-api-key: $EXA_API_KEY" ... See references/exa-tools.md for request format. WebSearch is fallback ONLY if curl fails.
2. Thinktank — Run the native research workflow: Bash: thinktank research "$QUERY" --output /tmp/thinktank-out --json Add --paths ... when local files or directories should be included as context.
3. xAI / social pulse — Bash: curl -s https://api.x.ai/v1/responses -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" ... Model MUST be grok-4.20-beta-latest-non-reasoning (only grok-4 supports tool use). See references/xai-search.md for request format. Skip ONLY for purely technical/code queries.
4. Codebase — Grep/Glob for what the project already does (skip only if query is unrelated to codebase)

Then produce a sourced report using the mandatory structure below.

Report Format (mandatory for all default fanout runs)

Every research report MUST have one labeled section per source that ran, followed by a synthesis. Omit a section only if that source was explicitly skipped — and state why it was skipped in the Synthesis section.

## Exa (neural search)
[Findings with inline URLs. What did Exa specifically surface?]

## xAI / Grok ([web_search | x_search | both])
[Findings with citations from response.citations. What did Grok surface?
For X Search: quotes or paraphrases from X posts, authors, dates.]

## Thinktank (multi-model synthesis)
[What did the thinktank consensus say? Note any model disagreements.]

## Codebase
[What relevant patterns, implementations, or prior art exist locally?
"None found" is a valid answer — write it explicitly.]

## Synthesis
[Consensus across sources. Conflicts or contradictions between them.
Recommendations grounded in the evidence above. Every claim cites a source.]

Discipline rule: if a section is missing, you either skipped that tool (state why) or you failed to run it (go back and run it). A report that collapses all sources into one unlabeled blob has failed the fanout goal. Readers must be able to see what each tool contributed independently.

Narrow to a single source ONLY when:

• The user explicitly names one (e.g., "/research web-search [query]")
• It's a version/fact lookup (e.g., "what version is X?")

If you catch yourself about to return results from only WebSearch — STOP. That means you skipped the fanout. Go back and launch the other sources.

Use When

• Before implementing any system >200 LOC (reference architecture search)
• Before choosing a library, framework, or approach (current best practices)
• When training data may be stale (model releases, API changes, deprecations)
• When you need to verify a fact before asserting it
• When the user asks about something outside the codebase
• During /groom architecture critique (reference implementations)
• During /shape technical exploration (how others solve this)
• During /build understand step (existing patterns and examples)
• When another skill says "web search first" or "research before implementing"

Decision Framework

If you're about to assert something from training data that could be wrong, invoke /research web-search first. The cost of a search is negligible; the cost of hallucination is high.

This applies especially to:

• Model names and versions (stale within months)
• Library APIs and best practices (change with major versions)
• Pricing, availability, feature comparisons
• Security advisories, CVEs, deprecation notices

Provider Routing

Exa-first for code and technical content. xAI for social/real-time pulse. Default to Exa unless the query is clearly better suited to another provider. Use xAI X Search for "what are people saying about", sentiment, discourse, trending topics. Use xAI Web Search when you need grounded web results with optional image understanding. See references/xai-search.md for API details.

Anti-Patterns

• Asserting model versions from training data without searching
• Using WebSearch for code examples (Exa code context is better)
• Skipping research because "I'm pretty sure" (you're not)
• Research without citations (every claim needs a URL)