| name | core-research |
| description | Activate when the turn's deliverable is findings, comparisons, recommendations, or an investigation-backed plan — answering questions, analyzing unfamiliar code, exploring new domains. Provides the systematic Scope → Discover → Synthesize → Plan workflow. |
| user-invocable | false |
Skill: core-research
Follow Scope → Discover → Synthesize → Plan for every research task.
Workflow
1. Scope & Requirements
- Clarify the research question. What exactly needs to be known?
- Identify the scope boundaries — what's in and what's out.
- If the goal is ambiguous, ask before proceeding. Never assume.
2. Discovery & Evidence Gathering
- Codebase: Use
Grep, Glob, and parallel Read calls to map relevant code.
- Deep code comprehension: when the investigation requires understanding or evaluating code in depth (not just locating it or running analysis tools), also activate
core-coding for its code-reading workflow and language companions.
- Web: Use
WebSearch → WebFetch for current docs and solutions.
- Journal: Use
SearchJournal to check past findings.
- Context efficiency: Batch reads to keep context lean. Offload massive or speculative exploration to an isolated sub-agent when delegation is available, so the main context stays focused.
3. Analysis & Synthesis
- Weave findings into a coherent picture. Don't list raw data.
- Identify patterns, conflicts, and gaps.
- Distinguish facts from assumptions. Flag uncertainties.
- If evidence contradicts initial expectations, update your hypothesis.
4. Deliverable
- For questions: Direct answer with supporting evidence and confidence level.
- For plans: Numbered steps with Action → Target → Verification per step.
- For decisions: Options compared with trade-offs, risks, and recommendation.
- Always cite sources:
file:line for code, URLs for web.
Safety Rules
- No premature modification: During Scope and Discovery phases, do not modify any files. Investigation comes before action.
- Approval gate: When running interactively, obtain explicit user approval of plans before implementing — this overrides the Working Loop's Frame step, which would otherwise work autonomously on directives. When running non-interactively (no user to approve), do not block on approval: present the plan inline and then proceed.
Output Standards
- Evidence-based: Every claim traceable to a source.
- Structured: Headings, lists, or tables as appropriate.
- Actionable: The reader knows what to do with the information.
- Transparent: Surface what you don't know or can't verify.
