octocode-research

name	octocode-research
description	Use when a technical question or code change needs evidence before conclusions: find or locate behavior, explain systems, diagnose failures, review diffs, validate dependencies or prior art, prove dead code, plan refactors, or ship the smallest verified fix.

Octocode Research

Evidence-first technical work. Flow: FRAME → CLASSIFY → MODEL → SEARCH → READ EXACT → PROVE → DECIDE/PATCH → VERIFY. Modes: investigate, review, change, refactor, prior-art validation, and evidence loops. Task class (bug/feature/enhancement/unknown) is separate from mode.

Lobby rules

1. State corpus, observed/desired behavior, authority, task class, mode, and active/skipped surfaces.
2. Call it a bug only when evidence proves a supported contract was violated.
3. Root cause needs mechanism, trigger, violated contract, divergence boundary, and disconfirming or counterfactual proof.
4. Use the strongest available handle; for nontrivial claims inspect at least two of structure, stream, and connections.
5. Track claim → evidence → confidence → next check; cite exact anchors and checks that actually ran.
6. Ask before broad contracts, deletion/rename, thin evidence, or three unrelated search spaces; patch only after proof.

Smart routes — load only what the current step needs

• Start every task with references/algorithm.md, then references/problem-framing.md — choose evidence grade, class, proof, and success before searching.
• When choosing a workflow, load references/workflows.md; then use references/workflow-local.md, references/workflow-external.md, references/workflow-debug.md, references/workflow-change.md, or references/workflow-refactor.md — get the corpus/mode-specific gates without mixing flows.
• When reviewing a diff/PR, load references/workflow-pr-review.md; use references/workflow-pr-review-analysis.md during inspection and references/workflow-pr-review-report.md during reporting — separate evidence collection from verdict.
• When modes must combine, load references/workflow-combination.md — order dependent flows and keep one claim ledger.
• When investigating or changing code, load references/code-research.md; for broader validation load references/research-flow.md — choose code semantics or general-source proof deliberately.
• When planning progress or fan-out, load references/researcher-mindset.md; when evidence shifts, load references/loop-mode.md — budget checks and converge instead of searching indefinitely.
• When mapping ecosystems, load references/github-landscape.md; when a decision is deep or contested, load references/long-research.md — rank prior art or produce a durable brief.
• When command, MCP, or schema details matter, load references/octocode.md — use verified transport syntax; when improving this skill, prefer octocode-eval (else references/improve-loop.md) — enforce an accept/revert gate.

Related routes

• Use octocode-awareness for shared-repo coordination, locks, verification, and durable lessons.
• Use octocode-brainstorming when worth-building is unresolved; octocode-eval for goal→KPI / keep-discard; octocode-rfc-generator for design contracts; octocode-skills for skill-folder lifecycle.
• Use octocode-subagent for bounded fan-out; octocode-roast for critique tone.

Script and output

• When changing this skill, run scripts/eval-research.mjs for the matching case — catch routing regressions.
• Quick output: Finding, Evidence, Confidence, Next; decisions add verdict, risks, exact anchors, verification, and smallest safe fix.