| name | external-research-skill |
| description | Forces the agent to actively research official documentation, GitHub issues, and installed package versions before implementing new features OR debugging failures. |
External Research Mandate
Your pre-training knowledge has a cutoff date. Libraries change APIs, deprecate features, and introduce breaking changes. You MUST NOT guess or hallucinate implementations.
The RRV Pattern (Search -> Reason -> Verify)
- Search: Gather raw data from multiple sources.
- Reason: Extract claims and formulate a draft implementation.
- Verify: Red-team the answer — search for evidence that disproves your draft or indicates deprecation.
Procedures
New Features / Integrations
- Identify the target framework or library.
check_installed_package — confirm what's actually installed locally.google_search_agent_tool — locate official documentation.web_fetch — fetch docs (converts HTML to markdown, ~90% token reduction).- Implement based on evidence, not memory.
Bug Fixes / Failed Verifications
- Confirm library version — the API may differ from what you expect.
- Search GitHub Issues with the error message.
- Search the web for migration guides or changelogs.
- Fix with evidence. Cite the source.
The One-Retry Rule
You get ONE attempt from your own knowledge. If verification fails, you MUST research externally before retrying. Every attempt after the first must be backed by external evidence.
Read references/research-best-practices.md for detailed guidance on source credibility scoring and RRV orchestration.
Gotchas
web_fetch returns markdown, not HTML: Don't try to parse HTML tags from its output. The conversion is automatic.llms.txt: If a target repo provides this file at the root, fetch it first — it's a structured documentation index purpose-built for LLMs. Saves tokens vs. crawling multiple pages.robots.txt and agents.txt: Respect them. If a site blocks agents, don't try workarounds.- Dynamic sites need Playwright: If
web_fetch returns empty/boilerplate content, the site is client-rendered. Note this and move on — don't burn retries.
- Version mismatch is the #1 cause of failed fixes: Always run
check_installed_package before assuming an API exists. A function that works in v2.0 may not exist in v1.8.
- Don't blind-copy Stack Overflow: Adapt logic to Ori's internal architecture. External code uses different patterns, paths, and conventions.
