| name | literature-review |
| description | Run a structured literature review on a topic using parallel search, evidence tables with quality scoring, and primary-source synthesis. |
If you were dispatched as a subagent to execute a specific review task, skip this skill. Do the task and return structured results immediately.
Do NOT launch searches or dispatch subagents until you have written the plan. Write the plan and continue immediately. Do not ask for confirmation unless the user explicitly requested plan review.
Literature Review Skill — Parallel Search + Evidence Synthesis
Workflow Overview
PLAN → GATHER (parallel researcher subagents) → SYNTHESIZE → CITE (verifier) → VERIFY (reviewer) → DELIVER
Step 1: Plan
Derive a short slug from the topic (lowercase, hyphens, no filler words, ≤5 words). Use this slug for all files.
Create .research-loop/sessions/<slug>/plan.md with:
- Key questions the review aims to answer
- Search angles (3–6 distinct angles for parallel dispatch)
- Source types to search: papers, web docs, repos, benchmarks, conference proceedings
- Time period / recency window
- Expected sections for the final review
- Task ledger tracking each angle
- Verification log
Write the plan and continue immediately. Summarize briefly. Do not ask for confirmation.
Step 2: Gather Evidence
Parallel search across multiple angles
Dispatch researcher subagents (.claude/agents/researcher.md) for each search angle. For a typical literature review, use 3–4 subagents in parallel:
| Agent | Task |
|---|
| researcher | Search academic papers: foundational works, recent advances, surveys |
| researcher | Search official documentation, benchmarks, and implementation repos |
| researcher | Search for field disagreements, unresolved debates, open problems |
| researcher (if broad scope) | Search adjacent fields, cross-domain applications, alternative approaches |
Each researcher writes to .research-loop/sessions/<slug>/findings-<angle>.md.
Evidence table with quality scoring
Each researcher must produce an evidence table with:
| # | Source | URL | Key claim | Type | Quality |
|---|
| 1 | ... | ... | ... | primary / secondary / self-reported | A / B / C |
Source quality tiers
| Tier | Description | Examples |
|---|
| A (Highest) | Peer-reviewed papers, official documentation, verified benchmarks, primary datasets, government filings | arXiv proceedings, IEEE/ACM, official docs |
| B (Good) | Reputable secondary sources, expert technical blogs, well-cited surveys, established trade publications | Distill.pub, high-quality blog posts |
| C (Accept with caveats) | Undated posts, content aggregators, social media with primary links, vendor claims without independent verification | Listicles, Medium posts without citations |
| Reject | No author + no date, AI-generated content without primary backing, anonymous claims | — |
When initial results skew toward low-quality sources, re-search with domain filters targeting authoritative domains (.edu, .gov, arXiv, ACL, NeurIPS, etc.).
Context hygiene for researchers
- Write findings progressively to files. Do not accumulate full page contents in working memory.
- Use
includeContent: true for top candidates only; triage by title/snippet first.
- Triage 10+ results by title before fetching full content.
- Track assigned questions explicitly: mark each as
done, blocked, or needs follow-up.
Step 3: Synthesize
Write the synthesis yourself. Do not delegate to subagents.
Save to .research-loop/sessions/<slug>/draft.md.
Structure:
- Executive Summary — 2–3 paragraph overview of findings
- Topic Clusters — Group findings by thematic clusters, not by source
- Consensus Points — What the literature agrees on
- Disagreements — Where experts diverge, with steel-manned arguments for each side
- Research Gaps — Explicit gaps identified in the literature; unanswered questions
- Open Questions — What remains unresolved and why it matters
Synthesis rules:
- Separate consensus, disagreements, and open questions clearly
- When useful, propose concrete next experiments or follow-up reading
- Before finishing the draft, sweep every strong claim against the verification log
- Downgrade anything that is inferred or single-source critical
Step 4: Cite
Dispatch the verifier agent (.claude/agents/verifier.md) to add inline citations and verify every source URL.
The verifier will:
- Anchor every factual claim to a numbered source citation
- Verify every URL resolves and contains the claimed content
- Remove unsourced factual claims
- Build a unified Sources section
- Deduplicate sources across multiple research files
- Enforce: every
[N] in body maps to Sources, every Sources entry is cited at least once
Save the cited draft to .research-loop/sessions/<slug>/draft-cited.md.
Step 5: Verify
Dispatch the reviewer agent (.claude/agents/reviewer.md) to check the cited draft for:
- Unsupported claims
- Logical gaps
- Zombie sections (content surviving from earlier drafts without support)
- Single-source critical findings
- Overstated confidence
The reviewer classifies issues as:
- FATAL — must fix before delivery
- MAJOR — note in Open Questions
- MINOR — accept as-is
Fix FATAL issues before delivery. If FATAL issues were found, run one more verification pass after the fixes.
Step 6: Deliver
Save the final literature review to .research-loop/sessions/<slug>/report.md.
Write a provenance sidecar to .research-loop/sessions/<slug>/provenance.md:
# Provenance: Literature Review — [topic]
- **Date:** [date]
- **Search angles:** [list of angles]
- **Sources consulted:** [count and/or list]
- **Sources accepted:** [count]
- **Sources rejected:** [count] — [reasons]
- **Verification:** [PASS / PASS WITH NOTES / BLOCKED]
- **Plan:** .research-loop/sessions/<slug>/plan.md
- **Research files:** [files used]
Before responding, verify on disk that both report.md and provenance.md exist.
Subagent Reference
| Agent | When dispatched |
|---|
| researcher | Step 2 — evidence gathering across parallel angles |
| verifier | Step 4 — citation verification and URL checking |
| reviewer | Step 5 — review pass on cited draft |
All subagent definitions live in .claude/agents/.
