research-harness-audit

name	research-harness-audit
description	RES: Read-only audit of raw data: variable inventory, missingness, IDs, units, merge keys, feasibility. Produces data_audit_report.md. Trigger: audit data, inspect data, data audit, check raw data. Do NOT load for: cleaning, analysis, review, release, setup.
description-en	RES: Read-only audit of raw data: variable inventory, missingness, IDs, units, merge keys, feasibility. Produces data_audit_report.md. Trigger: audit data, inspect data, data audit, check raw data. Do NOT load for: cleaning, analysis, review, release, setup.
kind	workflow
purpose	Perform a read-only audit of raw data files and produce a structured audit report
trigger	audit data, inspect data, data audit, check raw data, /research-harness-audit
shape	evaluate
role	evaluator
pair	research-harness-clean
owner	research-harness-core
since	2026-05-29
allowed-tools	["Read","Write","Bash","Glob","Grep"]
argument-hint	[--file PATH] [--all]
user-invocable	true
effort	medium

Research Harness Audit

Perform a read-only audit of raw data files. No data file is modified. The only output is a structured audit report and a log.

This skill runs after /research-harness-setup and before /research-harness-clean.

Quick Reference

Input	Action
/research-harness-audit	Audit all files listed in study_spec.md §3
/research-harness-audit --file data/raw/X.csv	Audit a specific file
/research-harness-audit --all	Audit everything found under data/raw/

Pre-flight Checks

Before starting:

1. Read study_spec.md. If it does not exist, stop and tell the user to run /research-harness-setup first.
2. Confirm the raw data path in study_spec.md §3 exists. If it does not, report the missing path and stop.
3. Write the audit log header to logs/audit_YYYYMMDD.log.

Procedure

Step 1 — File inventory

For each file under data/raw/ (or the file specified by --file):

• Record: file name, file size, format (CSV, DTA, XLSX, parquet, etc.), encoding if detectable
• Record: row count (excluding header), column count
• Do not load entire files into memory if they are large — use shell commands (wc -l, head, column-sniffing) where possible

Log each file to logs/audit_YYYYMMDD.log.

Step 2 — Variable inventory

For each file, record:

Variable	Inferred type	Non-missing count	Missing count	Missing %	Min	Max	Sample values

Use the actual variable names from the file headers. Do not rename or interpret variable names — record them as-is. If a variable name is ambiguous, note it in the audit report under §6 Open Issues; do not infer its meaning from the name alone.

Step 3 — ID consistency check

For each file:

• Identify candidate ID variables (variables whose name suggests an identifier: e.g., , , , , any variable ending in or )