research-history

name	research-history
description	Research what's been tried before - past attempts, lessons learned
argument-hint	[problem/approach or leave blank for current context]

Research historical attempts at $ARGUMENTS (or the current topic if no arguments provided).

Find what's been tried before - internally and externally - and extract lessons to avoid repeating mistakes.

<intake_gate>

<context_analysis> First, analyze $ARGUMENTS to extract what's already provided:

• The problem/approach to investigate
• Known past attempts
• How far back to look
• Internal vs external focus

Only ask about genuine gaps - don't re-ask what's already stated. </context_analysis>

<initial_questions> Use AskUserQuestion to ask 2-4 questions based on actual gaps:

If scope unclear:

• "What kind of history?" with options: Industry attempts, Internal past projects, Academic/research, All of the above, Other

If timeframe unclear:

• "How far back?" with options: Recent (1-2 years), Medium (3-5 years), Long (5+ years), All time, Other

If focus unclear:

• "What do you want to learn?" with options: Why things failed, Success patterns, What's changed since then, All of the above, Other

If context unclear:

• "Any known past attempts?" with options: Yes (I'll list them), No (find them), Some internal knowledge, Other

Skip questions where $ARGUMENTS already provides the answer. </initial_questions>

<decision_gate> After receiving answers, use AskUserQuestion:

Question: "Ready to research history, or would you like me to ask more questions?"

Options:

1. Start research - I have enough context
2. Ask more questions - There are details to clarify
3. Let me add context - I want to provide additional information

If "Ask more questions" → generate 2-3 contextual follow-ups, then present decision gate again If "Let me add context" → receive input, then present decision gate again If "Start research" → proceed to research </decision_gate>

</intake_gate>

After intake complete:

1. Define what problem/approach we're investigating
2. Find past attempts (internal projects, industry examples, academic)
3. For each attempt, document:
   • What they tried
   • What worked
   • What failed and why
   • What's different now
4. Extract patterns and lessons
5. Identify what to adopt and what to avoid

<output_format>

History Research: [Problem/Approach]

Strategic Summary

[2-3 sentences: key historical pattern, main lesson, what's different now]

What we're investigating

[The problem or approach we want to learn from]

Past Attempts

[Attempt 1: Name/Company/Project]

• When: [Timeframe]
• What they tried: [Approach]
• What worked: [Successes]
• What failed: [Failures and root causes]
• Why: [Analysis of success/failure factors]

[Attempt 2: Name/Company/Project] [Same structure...]

[Attempt 3: Name/Company/Project] [Same structure...]

Patterns

Common success factors:

• [Factor that correlates with success]
• [Factor that correlates with success]

Common failure modes:

• [Why things typically fail]
• [Why things typically fail]

What's Different Now

Lessons to Apply

Do:

• [Lesson to adopt]
• [Lesson to adopt]

Don't:

• [Mistake to avoid]
• [Mistake to avoid]

Open question: [What we still don't know from history]

Implementation Context

<claude_context>

• patterns: [successful patterns to follow]
• approaches: [technical approaches that worked]
• validations: [things to validate early based on past failures]

- antipatterns: [approaches that failed repeatedly] - assumptions: [false assumptions that caused failures] - shortcuts: [shortcuts that backfired] - now_possible: [things that are feasible now but weren't before] - still_hard: [things that remain challenging] - new_risks: [new risks that didn't exist before]

Next Action: Apply lessons to planning, research specific aspect deeper, or validate key assumptions

Sources

• [Source name]: [URL] - [date accessed]
• [Source name]: [URL] - [date accessed] </output_format>

<artifact_output> Save the research to a file:

1. Create directory structure if it doesn't exist:

   • [current-working-directory]/artifacts/research/

2. Generate filename from topic:

   • Get current date in YYYY-MM-DD format
   • Slugify the topic (lowercase, hyphens for spaces)
   • Format: YYYY-MM-DD-[topic]-history.md
   • Example: 2025-01-15-real-time-sync-history.md

3. Write the complete research to the file

4. Report to user: "Saved to artifacts/research/[filename]" </artifact_output>

<success_criteria>

• Past attempts are relevant (similar problem/context)
• Failure analysis goes to root cause (not surface)
• Lessons are actionable (not just "be careful")
• Acknowledges what's changed since then
• Implementation context gives Claude specific patterns to adopt/avoid
• Informs current approach concretely
• Output saved to artifacts/research/ directory </success_criteria>