| name | research-engine |
| description | Autonomous research pipeline — topic to structured documents with HTML/PDF output. Proven at HEL (28 docs, 91K words) and OOPS (9 docs, 20K words) scale. |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| type | skill |
| category | research |
| status | stable |
| origin | tibsfox |
| modified | false |
| first_seen | "2026-03-31T00:00:00.000Z" |
| first_path | .claude/skills/research-engine/SKILL.md |
| superseded_by | null |
Research Engine
Activates when user requests deep research, investigation, or analysis of a topic that will produce multiple structured documents.
Pipeline
TOPIC → DECOMPOSE → PARALLEL RESEARCH → AGGREGATE → STRUCTURE → BUILD → PUBLISH
Stage 1: Decompose
Break the research topic into 4-12 investigation tracks. Each track becomes one document.
Stage 2: Parallel Research
Launch research agents (2-6 in parallel) with specific investigation briefs. Use run_in_background: true for independence.
Stage 3: Aggregate
Collect findings. Check for contradictions. Identify cross-references.
Stage 4: Structure
Organize into a numbered document series with:
- Index page (index.html)
- Individual research documents (research/NN-slug.md)
- Knowledge graph (knowledge-nodes.json)
- Retrospective (retrospective.md)
Stage 5: Build
Convert markdown to HTML and PDF using pandoc + xelatex:
bash build.sh
Stage 6: Publish
Commit, tag, merge to main, push, create GitHub release, FTP sync to configured remote host.
Quality Standards
- Minimum 1,500 words per document
- Every claim needs evidence or explicit reasoning
- Cross-references between documents
- Fact-check pass before final publish
- Three output formats: markdown (source), HTML (reading), PDF (sharing)
Project Codes
Each research project gets a 3-4 letter code added to series.js:
- HEL (Helium Supply Chain)
- OOPS (Ecosystem Alignment)
- OPEN (Unsolved Problems)
Build Infrastructure
Templates at the project level:
template.tex — LaTeX template for branded PDFshtml-template.html — Standalone HTML templatebuild.sh — Automated pandoc build script
