research

# Research Skill Use this skill for the pre-experiment stage: understanding project context, developing research questions, grounding work in literature, and producing deep research outputs. ## Prompt Boundary Stay inside this skill when the work is about: - reading project context and framing the problem - creating or progressing research questions - searching papers and reading them progressively - curating `RelatedWork` - writing or updating a deep research report Hand off to: - **[experiments](../experiments/SKILL.md)** once the work becomes experiment planning or execution - **[autonomy](../autonomy/SKILL.md)** to drive the CC-client autonomous loop when you are choosing the next experiment yourself ## Empty-Project Onboarding If `synapse_get_research_questions` and `synapse_get_related_works` both return empty for the active project, do not guess a direction. Ask the user: 1. **List existing literature** — does the user already have related works elsewhere that should be imported first? 2. **Search new literature** — run `synapse_search_papers` against an initial topic phrase supplied by the user, and curate results with `synapse_add_related_work`. 3. **Draft a research question** — create the first `ResearchQuestion` with `synapse_create_research_question` so later experiments have a framing to attach to. 4. **Generate a deep research report** — once some related works exist, run the progressive-read flow below and save the synthesis with `synapse_save_deep_research_report`. Offer example invocations (with the project UUID filled in) so the user can pick one. Do not skip ahead to experiment planning from this skill. ## Typical Flow 1. `synapse_checkin()` 2. `synapse_get_research_project()` or `synapse_get_project_full_context()` 3. `synapse_get_research_questions()` or create/claim a question 4. `synapse_search_papers()` and inspect papers with `brief` / `head` / `section` / `full` 5. `synapse_add_related_work()` for durable project memory 6. `synapse_save_deep_research_report()` when synthesizing findings (organize thematically, not paper-by-paper; cite specific methods/results; match the project description's language) 7. `synapse_add_comment()` on the research question or project artifacts when reasoning should be durable 8. If the task originated from a Synapse-triggered deep research or auto search, finish with `synapse_complete_task({ taskType: "deep_research" | "auto_search" })` ## Core Rule Do not drift into experiment execution from this skill. Once you are drafting a runnable experiment plan, switch to **[experiments](../experiments/SKILL.md)**. ## Reference - **[Research workflow reference](../synapse/references/02-research-workflow.md)** - **[Common tools](../synapse/references/00-common-tools.md)**