research-handoff

name	research-handoff
description	Operator-confirmed emission gate: takes a completed research engagement (analysis slug or campaign dir) and proposes .work/ items grounded in its actionable findings. Each emitted item carries research_origin metadata plus a body citation back to the .research/ artifact. Silent no-op when .work/CONVENTIONS.md is absent. NEVER auto-fires — always operator-invoked and always asks before writing.

Research Handoff

Arrow 2 of the research↔work handoff: a completed research engagement with actionable findings can emit tracked .work/ items, operator-confirmed and gate-style. This skill is the emission gate. It is operator-invoked and never auto-fires — the research-orchestrator suggests it as a next step, but emission is always a deliberate operator act.

The directionality invariant (non-negotiable): this gate writes only to .work/. It never writes into .research/. Research informs work; operational state never rewrites the research record (ARD SPEC §1/§4.6). Every step below that touches a file is either a read from .research/ or a write to .work/.

Phase 1 — Locate the source artifact(s)

Resolve the operator's argument to one or more analysis artifacts:

• Slug — look under .research/analysis/ in all four sub-tiers: positions/<slug>.md, briefs/<slug>.md, campaigns/<slug>/parent.md (or the campaign dir itself), hypothesis/<slug>.md. The slug is the slug: value in the artifact's YAML frontmatter (or the dir name for campaigns).
• Campaign dir — if the argument is a path like .research/analysis/campaigns/<slug>/, read parent.md as the synthesis. Read dispatch.md only when present: standalone-heavy campaigns use it as the registration fallback, but work-item-commissioned campaigns deliberately keep .research/ as clean output substrate and carry registration on the commissioning item instead.

From each resolved artifact, extract:

1. The actionable findings — sections or bullet points that represent recommendations, adoption proposals, hypotheses to validate, or implementation candidates.
2. The artifact's output_kind field when available (artifact frontmatter, or a campaign dispatch.md on the standalone-heavy path). Values that signal actionability: adoption-recommendations, staged-hypothesis, recommendation. Note it — it guides the proposed item kind. If no output_kind is present, do not fail: infer actionability from the artifact body, surface that inference in Phase 3, and let the operator confirm or skip.
3. The artifact's slug — this is the citation key for research_origin:.
4. The artifact file path — this is the body citation target.

If no artifact is found at the resolved path, report clearly and stop. The finding stands in .research/ and no .work/ write is attempted.

Phase 2 — Substrate presence check

Check whether .work/CONVENTIONS.md exists in the working tree.

If .work/CONVENTIONS.md is absent: report that the finding stands in .research/ (path + slug) and that no operational substrate is present for emission. Stop silently — no .work/ write is attempted, no error. The plugin's research capability is fully intact without .work/.

This is the repo-eval precedent: "if no substrate exists, skip this phase silently."

Only proceed to Phase 3 if .work/CONVENTIONS.md is present.

Phase 3 — Propose and confirm via structured question tool

Present the operator with:

• A summary of the source artifact (slug, path, output_kind, brief description).
• The list of actionable findings you extracted (numbered, one per proposed item).
• The proposed item kind for each (story or feature, per scope; default to story for narrow/surgical findings, feature for findings that need a design pass).

Ask: where should these findings be filed?

Options (present all three, state the default):

• Backlog (default, lowest commitment) — each finding becomes .work/backlog/<id>.md for later scoping. Recommend this unless the operator has a specific reason to promote immediately.
• Active — each finding becomes .work/active/stories/<id>.md (narrow, surgical) or .work/active/features/<id>.md (needs design pass), per scope.
• Skip — leave findings in the report only, no .work/ write.

Honor the operator's choice exactly. If they select skip, stop here with no .work/ write.

CRITICAL: Do not write any .work/ items before receiving confirmation. This skill never auto-writes.

Phase 4 — Emit the confirmed items

For each confirmed finding, write one item file. Follow the .work/ substrate frontmatter convention (from .work/CONVENTIONS.md):

---
id: <generated-id>
kind: story          # or feature, per the operator's selection and finding scope
stage: drafting
tags: [<domain-tag>]
parent: null
depends_on: []
release_binding: null
gate_origin: null
research_origin: <slug>
created: <today-iso>
updated: <today-iso>
---

research_origin: <slug> — set to the source artifact's slug (the citation key the fields feature added to the substrate schema). This is the machine-queryable link: work-view --research-origin <slug> will find this item once the fields feature has landed.

Item body — write the finding text (verbatim or lightly formatted for clarity) followed by a citation block:

## Research grounding

**Source**: `<path-to-artifact>` (slug: `<slug>`)

<one-sentence summary of the finding and why it is actionable>

Tags: derive from the finding's domain (e.g., [adoption], [security], [testing], [architecture]). Use the source artifact's domain context as a guide.

Target path:

• Backlog (default): .work/backlog/<id>.md
• Active story: .work/active/stories/<id>.md
• Active feature: .work/active/features/<id>.md

Generate ids with the prefix research-handoff-<slug>-<N> (N = 1, 2, …) unless the operator provides their own id scheme.

All writes target .work/. Nothing is written into .research/.

Phase 5 — Commit and report

Commit the emitted items:

research-handoff: filed <N> items from <slug> (research_origin)

Report in conversation:

• Items filed: count + each item's id and path.
• Next: /agile-workflow:scope to cluster and prioritize the filed findings, or start an autopilot goal to drain them.

Behavioral invariants

• No .work/ write before confirmation. Phase 3's structured question tool is mandatory.
• No .research/ writes anywhere. This gate is read-only against .research/; every write targets .work/.
• Silent no-op without .work/CONVENTIONS.md. Phase 2 stops before any write attempt when the substrate is absent.
• One item per actionable finding (default). Umbrella items only if the operator explicitly requests consolidation.
• research_origin: is always set on emitted items (the schema field the fields feature ships). Body always carries a citation to the source artifact path
  • slug.

Related

• research-orchestrator — the engagement entry point that produces the .research/ artifacts this gate consumes. When an engagement surfaces actionable output, the orchestrator suggests running /agentic-research:research-handoff <slug>.
• docs/HANDOFF.md — the authoritative contract document for the research↔work pairing; Arrow 2 is this skill.
• .work/CONVENTIONS.md — the substrate frontmatter contracts; governs the emitted item shape.
• work-view --research-origin <slug> — queries emitted items by their source engagement once filed.