| name | parallel-investigate |
| description | Fans out multiple agents in parallel via the Workflow tool to investigate a codebase question — bug root cause tracing, cross-file or cross-repository behavior tracing, "why does X happen for some cases but not others" questions — then synthesizes a ranked, file:line-cited answer in chat. The point of this skill is explicitness: it announces the investigation dimensions and agent count before launching, narrates progress, and reports a structured synthesis, rather than leaving multi-agent orchestration as an implicit background behavior the user can't see into. Supports investigations that span more than one local repository on disk (e.g. a backend service and a client app that talks to it). Investigation only — does not edit code or fix anything; pair with another skill or a follow-up request for that. Use when the user wants to investigate a bug, trace behavior across files or repositories, understand why something happens under some conditions but not others, or explicitly asks for a parallel/multi-agent investigation. Trigger phrases: "parallel-investigate", "/parallel-investigate", "並列で調査して", "並列調査", "複数エージェントで調べて", "複数エージェントで並列調査して", "investigate this in parallel", "fan out and investigate", "investigate across repos", "trace this across repositories".
|
| version | 1.0.0 |
Parallel Investigate
Investigate a codebase question by fanning out multiple Workflow agents across
independent dimensions, then synthesizing their findings into one ranked, cited
answer. Always run this via the Workflow tool directly — never simulate the
fan-out with sequential Agent calls, and never hide the orchestration from the
user. Explicitness is the entire value of this skill over ad hoc investigation.
Feedback Check
If feedback/log.md exists next to this SKILL.md and has 5 or more entries, read
the last 10. If a pattern is apparent (the same issue in 3+ entries, or average
rating below 3), tell the user (in Japanese): 「過去のフィードバックで類似パターン
を検出: [簡潔に]。/skill-improve --skill parallel-investigate で改善案を分析でき
ます。」Continue with normal execution either way. If feedback/log.md does not
exist, skip silently.
Step 1: Scope the Question
- Guard against overkill first. If the question can be answered by reading
one file or a single targeted grep, say so briefly and just answer it
directly — do not launch a Workflow for it. This applies even when the skill
was triggered by natural language, not just the slash command.
- Guard against vagueness. If the request has no concrete subject or
codebase area ("調べて" with nothing else, no symptom, no file/module named),
ask 1-2 clarifying questions before proceeding. Do not guess dimensions from a
request with nothing to decompose.
- Decompose into investigation dimensions. For genuinely multi-faceted
questions, read
references/decomposition-patterns.md for the by-layer,
by-repository, and by-hypothesis decomposition strategies (with a worked
example) before picking dimensions. Aim for 3-5 dimensions.
- Check for cross-repository scope. If the codebase references an external
component whose source is not present in the current repo, do not conclude
it's simply unavailable — follow the repo-discovery steps in
decomposition-patterns.md (check common sibling-repo roots, then ask the
user) before ruling it out.
Step 2: Announce the Plan
Before launching anything, tell the user in one short paragraph: how many
dimensions/agents, what each will investigate, and that this runs in the
background. Never launch silently — the whole point of this skill is that the
user can see the investigation happening, not just receive a final answer.
Step 3: Launch the Workflow
Read references/workflow-template.md for the exact script pattern (Explore
phase with one parallel agent per dimension, then a Synthesize phase). Read
references/synthesis-format.md for the exact instructions to give the
Synthesize agent (ranking, CONFIRMED/PLAUSIBLE confidence tags, contradiction
resolution, convergence notes, a concrete next step, ~900-word cap).
Rules that apply regardless of the specific question:
- Every Explore-phase agent prompt must be fully self-contained — agents share
no context with you or each other. Restate the symptom/question, name the
exact files/dirs (and repo path, if not the current one), and specify exactly
what to report back with file:line citations.
- Label every agent (
explore:<dimension>, synthesis) so progress in
/workflows is legible.
- Use
parallel() as the barrier between Explore and Synthesize — synthesis
genuinely needs every finding at once to cross-reference and rank them. Do not
use pipeline() here even though it's the general default for multi-stage
Workflow scripts.
- Before reading any repository you didn't already have open (see Step 1's
cross-repo case), check
git status first. If it's on a non-default branch
with uncommitted changes, investigate the working tree read-only; do not
switch branches, stash, or pull without asking.
Step 4: Report Back
Relay the Synthesize agent's output to the user in chat, organized and cited.
This skill's default output is chat-only — do not write a report file unless the
user separately asks for one to be saved.
Behavior Scenarios
BDD spec lives in references/scenarios.feature. Read only when auditing or
amending this skill; not needed for normal execution.
Retrospective
After Step 4 completes, reflect on the investigation:
-
Consider: was the initial decomposition wrong and had to be redone? Did a
dimension turn out irrelevant or a needed one get missed? Any Workflow
errors, or an agent that returned nothing useful?
-
Ask the user (in Japanese): 「今回の調査のフィードバック (1-5の評価、気になった
点、または何もなければEnter)」 If the user provides a rating < 5, ALWAYS
follow up with: 「なぜその評価ですか? (改善のために具体的に教えてください)」
Record the response verbatim as Rating reason.
-
If the user provides feedback OR corrections/issues actually occurred:
a. Create feedback/ next to this SKILL.md if it does not exist.
b. Read feedback/log.md (create with # Feedback Log header followed by a
blank line and the comment
<!-- Append new entries at the top. Do not edit previous entries. -->
if it does not exist).
c. Prepend a new entry directly after the header:
## <ISO-8601 timestamp>
- **Skill Version**: 1.0.0
- **Task**: <the question investigated, 1 line>
- **Outcome**: success | partial-success | failure | error
- **Rating**: <N>/5 (or "—" if not provided)
- **Rating reason**: <verbatim WHY answer, or "—" if rating was 5 or not provided>
- **Corrections**:
:
References
references/decomposition-patterns.md — WHEN TO READ: during Step 1, when
deciding how to split the question into investigation dimensions (by layer, by
repository, by hypothesis) and how to locate a referenced-but-missing repo.
references/workflow-template.md — WHEN TO READ: during Step 3, as the
starting script pattern to adapt for the real investigation.
references/synthesis-format.md — WHEN TO READ: during Step 3, when writing
the Synthesize-phase agent's prompt.
references/scenarios.feature — WHEN TO READ: only when auditing or amending
this skill.