| name | research-status |
| description | Report the derived status of every chapter in a research project — computed live from frontmatter and the RESEARCH/CONFIDENCE/AUDIT directives on disk, not from a stored enum. Use when the user asks for research status/progress, what's left, or which chapters are stub/inquiry/draft/audited/done. Arguments: optional path or status filter. |
| model | sonnet |
| allowed-tools | Read, Bash(bash */skills/research-status/research-status.sh *) |
| argument-hint | [path-prefix] [--status stub|inquiry|draft|audited|done] |
Research Status
Report the true, derived status of each chapter in a research project. Status is
not stored anywhere — it is computed on the fly from the signals that live on
disk (frontmatter audit: field, and the <!-- RESEARCH: -->, <!-- CONFIDENCE: -->,
<!-- AUDIT: --> directives, plus references.yaml verification flags). This skill
is the human-facing front end to the shared research-status.sh helper that every
other research skill also consults instead of reading a status enum from INDEX.md.
How it works
The helper lives next to this skill at <skills-root>/research-status/research-status.sh,
where <skills-root> is the .claude/skills/ directory this skill is installed in
(~/.claude/skills for a global install, <project>/.claude/skills for a project
install). Run it against the project's research/ directory.
Parse $ARGUMENTS:
- A bare token that looks like a path (contains
/ or ends in .md, or names a
top-level topic) → pass as --path <token> to scope to one chapter or subtree.
--status <s> → pass through to filter to one derived status.- Nothing → report the whole project.
Run the helper (adjust <skills-root> to the real install path):
bash <skills-root>/research-status/research-status.sh research [--path P] [--status S]
If the project's research directory is not the default research, pass its path as
the first positional argument instead.
Output
Present the helper's output verbatim in a fenced block, then add a one-paragraph
reading of it: how many chapters sit at each status and what the nearest actionable
work is (e.g. "3 chapters are inquiry — run /research-investigation or
/research-investigation-cycle next; 1 audited chapter has an open major AUDIT —
/research-refine it").
Each chapter line reads:
<status> <rel_path> research=N conf=lo/me audit=mi/ma lenses=D/4 gfx=y|n refs=V/T [warn=...]
- research — open RESEARCH directives (inquiry work still pending).
- conf — open CONFIDENCE markers,
low/medium. Their sole consumer is the
audit phase (which is total over them), so an open marker means the chapter is
still draft; it never lingers past audited.
- audit — open AUDIT directives,
minor/major (refine work pending).
- lenses — core audit lenses recorded (of consistency, coverage, quality,
coherence); all four are required to reach
audited. gfx flags the supplementary
graphics lens.
- refs — verified / total references (reported detail, not an independent gate):
an unverified reference rides the marker pipeline as a CONFIDENCE marker pre-audit
and an AUDIT post-audit, so it reaches
done the same way every other finding does.
- warn — appears only when signals contradict (e.g. an audit lens was recorded
while RESEARCH directives are still open, or a stray CONFIDENCE marker survives to
four lenses —
stray-confidence); surface these to the user as anomalies.
Status is the earliest phase with an open worklist marker (RESEARCH ≺ CONFIDENCE ≺ AUDIT): stub (no outline yet) → inquiry (open RESEARCH) → draft (open
CONFIDENCE, or investigated with fewer than four lenses) → audited (four lenses
run, no CONFIDENCE, open AUDIT) → done (nothing open). missing means a chapter is listed in
INDEX.md but absent on disk; the footer also lists untracked chapters (on disk,
absent from INDEX.md).
Rules
- Read-only. This skill never edits any file, and never writes a status anywhere —
status is always derived, never stored.
- Do not commit.
