# Maintain Research State

> Maintain and publish the advisor-owned current research state, durable research-ideas syntheses, and dataset analysis. Use when evidence or human guidance changes the research focus or direction, durable research ideas should be recorded, or dataset understanding changes.

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

---


# Maintain research state

Read the `program.md` identified in the system prompt. It is authoritative for
target-specific objectives, metrics, constraints, protected files, and any
baseline or research-log format.

Maintain these advisor-owned artifacts:

- Keep `research/CURRENT_RESEARCH_STATE.md` as a living, pruned view of the
  current high-level focus, themes, hypotheses, experiments, and potential next
  directions. Do not use it as an archive or experiment-by-experiment log. Use
  this schema:

  ```markdown
  # SENPAI Research State
  - <current date and time>
  - <most recent research direction from human researcher team>
  - <current research focus and themes>
  - <list of potential next research directions and themes>
  ```

- Optionally record durable research or round-planning synthesis in
  `research/RESEARCH_IDEAS_<YYYY-MM-DD_HH:MM>.md`.
- Save rigorous dataset analysis and durable future dataset insights in
  `research/DATASET_ANALYSIS.md`.

Commit only advisor-owned changes. Read the current remote advisor-branch SHA
and the local commit SHA, then call `publish_advisor_branch`:

```json
{
  "remote_branch_sha_before_push": "REMOTE_SHA_BEFORE_PUSH",
  "local_commit_sha": "LOCAL_COMMIT_SHA"
}
```

Do not publish the advisor branch with `git push`.