research-persist

name

research-persist

description

Set up or repair only the minimal persistent file and runner structure that lets planning, implementation, and optimization survive context resets or interrupted sessions. Use when the user wants Ralph-like persistence, resumable execution, state files, progress logs, or a durable research runner. Triggers on: persistent loop, resume optimization, watchdog, keep running after context reset, stateful research runner, long-running research bot.

Persistent Research Runtime

Establish or repair the durable runtime for: $ARGUMENTS

Read ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/state-pattern.md before changing the runtime structure.

Objective

Make the project restart-safe. This skill exists to ensure that the planning, implementation, and optimization artifacts are all sufficient for a fresh session to continue.

Required Runtime Files

Maintain only:

• runtime/RESEARCH_STATE.json
• runtime/MANIFEST.md

Responsibilities

1. Check whether research/, research/implementation/, and optimization/ have the required artifacts.
2. Fill gaps with minimal templates instead of rebuilding everything.
3. Write runtime/MANIFEST.md as an index of the current source-of-truth files.
4. Update runtime/RESEARCH_STATE.json with a short summary of the active phase, current goal, current status, next step, recommended next skill, and key files.
5. When optimization starts a materially new run, preserve the runtime index so the archive and the new run are both recoverable.

Canonical Runtime State

runtime/RESEARCH_STATE.json should point to:

• active phase,
• current goal,
• current status,
• next step,
• recommended next skill,
• key files for the next agent to read,
• updated timestamp.

Treat this file as the current runtime snapshot. Overwrite the summary fields when state changes; do not append history into this JSON file.

Recovery Procedure

A fresh session should be able to:

1. read runtime/RESEARCH_STATE.json,
2. open the listed canonical artifacts,
3. continue from there without re-planning the whole project.

Guardrails

• Do not invent duplicate source-of-truth files.
• Prefer repairing missing state over introducing a new framework.
• Keep the manifest current whenever the canonical files change.