research-setup

name	research-setup
description	Set up Claude for the input side of academic research — literature reviews, paper screening and summaries, reference management with Zotero, annotated bibliographies, and reading notes for your research domain. For drafting the manuscript itself, use academic-writing-setup.

Research Setup

This skill configures Claude for academic and research work.

Handoff context: Read skills/_shared/consume-handoff.md and run it with the handoff block (if any). The helper guarantees the following locals: detected_language, existing_claude_md, inferred_use_case, repo_signals, graphify_candidate. Use detected_language for all user-facing prose; generated file content stays in English.

Existing CLAUDE.md: If existing_claude_md: true, DO NOT overwrite it. Append a new delimited section at the end of the file:

<!-- onboarding-agent:start setup=research skill=research-setup section=claude-md -->
## Claude Onboarding Agent — Research Setup
...generated content...
<!-- onboarding-agent:end -->

If the delimited block already exists from a previous run, replace only the content between the markers; leave the rest untouched. Wrap generated .gitignore entries in # onboarding-agent: research — start / — end markers so /upgrade-setup can refresh them non-destructively.

Supporting Files

Read these on-demand at the step that invokes them. Do not read eagerly.

• skills/_shared/consume-handoff.md — orchestrator handoff parse + inline fallback (preamble, before Step 1)
• skills/_shared/offer-superpowers.md — canonical Superpowers opt-in (Step 1)
• skills/_shared/offer-graphify.md — canonical Graphify opt-in (Step 5)

Step 1: Install Dependencies

Read skills/_shared/offer-superpowers.md and run it with skill_slug: research-setup, mandatory: false, capability_line: "A widely used free Claude Code skills library. Brainstorming and planning skills work well for structuring research arguments and planning complex documents." The helper asks the user, delegates to skills/_shared/installation-protocol.md on yes, and sets superpowers_installed, superpowers_scope, superpowers_method.

Step 2: Context Questions

Ask one at a time:

1. "What is your research domain? (e.g., machine learning, economics, molecular biology, history, philosophy)"

2. "What citation format do you use? A) APA B) MLA C) Chicago / Turabian D) IEEE E) Vancouver F) Other — please specify"

3. "What do you primarily write in? A) LaTeX B) Word / Google Docs C) Markdown D) A mix"

Step 3: Generate Artifacts

CLAUDE.md

# Claude Instructions — Research & Academic Writing

## Domain
Research domain: [answer from Q1]
Citation format: [answer from Q2]
Writing tool: [answer from Q3]

## Guidelines
- Always use [citation format] for all references and bibliographies
- When summarizing a paper, include: main contribution, methodology, key results, limitations
- For literature reviews: group papers thematically, not chronologically
- When building an argument: state the claim clearly, cite supporting evidence, address the strongest counterargument
- [If LaTeX] Format all citations as BibTeX entries. Use \cite{} in the body text.
- [If Word/Docs] Format all references in [citation format] style in a bibliography section at the end
- Never fabricate citations. If you cannot find a specific source, say so explicitly.
- When using information from training data (not a provided source), flag it clearly.

[Include ONLY if superpowers_installed is true]
## Superpowers
Superpowers is installed. For complex writing tasks — outlines, literature reviews, argument structures — use superpowers:brainstorming to map the structure before drafting.

.gitignore

Assemble the block from the research-specific lines below plus the shared common patterns from skills/_shared/gitignore-common.md. Wrap in # onboarding-agent: research — start / — end markers.

Research-specific lines:

# LaTeX build artifacts
*.aux
*.log
*.bbl
*.blg
*.out
*.toc
*.fdb_latexmk
*.fls
*.synctex.gz

# Large files
*.pdf
*.zip

Then inline the block from skills/_shared/gitignore-common.md (OS noise, env files, .claude/settings.local.json).

Step 4: Optional Community Skills

"Would you like to install additional community skills?

A) claude-scientific-skills — NumPy, SciPy, pandas, matplotlib helpers for scientific Python B) claude-d3js-skill — data visualization patterns and D3.js helpers C) All of the above D) None

(Multiple selections via comma, e.g. 'A, B')"

For each selected skill, run: /plugin install <skill>@claude-plugins-official

On failure: warn and continue. Add successfully installed skills to the Completion Summary under: Optional community skills: [list or "none selected"]

Step 5: Optional Graphify Integration

Research projects often carry large PDF libraries, Markdown notes, and literature folders — exactly what Graphify indexes.

Read skills/_shared/offer-graphify.md and run it with:

• host_setup_slug: "research"
• host_skill_slug: "research-setup"
• run_initial_build: true
• install_git_hook: false (research folders are usually not under git)
• corpus_blurb: "your research corpus (PDFs, Markdown notes, code snippets via tree-sitter for 25 languages, diagrams, images, audio/video). This cuts token cost substantially on large literature folders"

The helper owns the opt-in prompt and the three-way branch (yes / no / later), delegating to skills/_shared/graphify-install.md. Record the graphify_* variables it produces for use in Step 8.

Step 6: Write Upgrade Metadata

Set setup_slug: research, skill_slug: research-setup. Resolve plugin_version from the plugin's own plugin.json. Then follow skills/_shared/write-meta.md to create or merge ./.claude/onboarding-meta.json. If Step 5 installed Graphify, skills_used will include both research-setup and graphify-setup.

Step 7: Render Anchor Sections

Read skills/_shared/anchor-mapping.md. Locate the row for setup_type: research. For each anchor slug in that row:

1. Call skills/_shared/render-anchor-section.md with:
   • setup_type: research
   • skill_slug: research-setup
   • anchor_slug: <slug>
   • target_file: ./CLAUDE.md
   • fallback_content: <embedded fallback from skills/anchors/SKILL.md for that slug>
2. If a ./AGENTS.md file was generated earlier in this skill, repeat the call with target_file: ./AGENTS.md.

Do not fail if any single render-anchor-section.md call returns placeholder. Collect rendered / placeholder slugs for the completion summary.

For every call, also capture render_freshness. When it is anything other than network or cache (i.e. fallback or embedded), record the (anchor_slug, render_freshness) pair in anchor_freshness_notes. The completion summary's Anchor freshness line consumes this list.

Step 8: Cascade to academic-writing-setup (conditional)

Research projects often ship a manuscript folder next to the literature — when they do, academic-writing-setup configures the writing side (voice, citation rules, LaTeX scaffold). Offer the cascade when signals suggest the user is also authoring a paper in this repo.

Detection

Probe the project root (read-only, non-fatal on any error):

• main.tex or main.typ at the root
• paper.tex, thesis.tex, manuscript.tex, or dissertation.tex at the root
• Any *.tex file inside sections/, chapters/, or manuscript/
• A bib/ directory OR a *.bib file at the root

If none match, skip to Step 9. Record cascade_offered: false.

Offer

If at least one signal matched, ask once (adapt to detected_language):

"A manuscript scaffold was detected ([list matched signals, max 3]). Also run academic-writing-setup right after? It configures the writing side (style rules, citation rules, LaTeX scaffold). (yes / no)"

Record the answer as cascade_accepted.

• On no: set cascade_offered: true, cascade_accepted: false, cascade_ran: false. Continue to Step 9.
• On yes: set cascade_offered: true, cascade_accepted: true. Proceed to Invocation.

Invocation

Construct the cascade handoff payload. Copy every field from the handoff context this skill received and add the two cascade markers:

{
  "detected_language": "<current detected_language>",
  "existing_claude_md": <current existing_claude_md>,
  "inferred_use_case": "<current inferred_use_case>",
  "repo_signals": <current repo_signals object>,
  "graphify_candidate": <current graphify_candidate>,
  "source": "orchestrator",
  "source_skill": "research-setup",
  "superpowers_offered": <true if Step 1 already asked the user about Superpowers, else false>
}

Invoke skills/academic-writing-setup/SKILL.md with this payload as the handoff block. The child skill will read the two cascade markers and skip its own language detection preamble and its own Superpowers offer.

Record cascade_ran: true once the child skill returns. Do not retry on failure — log the outcome and continue to Step 9.

Step 9: Completion Summary

✓ Research setup complete!

Files created:
  CLAUDE.md                     — domain, citation format ([format]), and writing guidelines
  .gitignore                    — LaTeX artifacts and large file rules
  .claude/onboarding-meta.json  — setup marker for /upgrade-setup

External skills:
  [✓ Superpowers installed via superpowers_method (superpowers_scope)]
  [skipped — install later with: /plugin install superpowers@claude-plugins-official]
  [⚠ Superpowers installation failed — install manually: https://github.com/obra/superpowers]

Optional community skills: [list of installed skills, or "none selected"]

Graphify (knowledge graph):
  [✓ installed via <installer>, /graphify + PreToolUse hook registered | ⚠ installed but hook not verified — run /graphify in a new session | — skipped: <reason> | — deferred: run /graphify-setup when ready | — not offered]

Cascade:
  [omit the whole line if cascade_offered is false; otherwise:
   ✓ Cascaded into academic-writing-setup — see its summary above for writing-side artifacts. |
   — Cascade declined; run /academic-writing-setup later if you also need writing-side rules.]

Anchor freshness:
  [omit the whole block if anchor_freshness_notes is empty; otherwise one line per entry:
   Anchor <anchor_slug> served from <render_freshness> — consider running /anchors to refresh.]

Next steps:
  Start a new Claude session and say: "Summarize this paper: [paste abstract or upload PDF]"
  Or: "Help me outline a literature review on [topic]"
  [If Graphify installed] Try: /graphify query "which papers discuss <topic>?"
  - Run `/anchors` any time to refresh the anchor-derived sections. If any section was rendered as a placeholder due to offline mode, re-run `/anchors` once you are back online.