research

name	research
description	Investigate a topic, library, or approach before planning. Combines user context, prior knowledge, and external sources.
allowed-tools	Bash, Read, Glob, Grep, AskUserQuestion, Agent

Research

Structured exploration to ground decisions in evidence. Use before /plan or whenever facing unfamiliar territory. $ARGUMENTS is the topic or question to investigate.

1. Scope: what do we need to learn? Break the topic into specific questions. If the user gave a broad topic, narrow it down — "how does X work?" is better than "tell me about X".
2. Prior knowledge: start with what you already know. State it explicitly so the user can correct misconceptions early.
3. External sources: for each open question, gather evidence following the Research rule in workflow.md — Context7 for libraries/APIs, web search for patterns and recommendations, source code for internals.
4. Synthesize: write findings to a temp file (/tmp/research-<timestamp>.md). Structure:
   • Topic: what we investigated
   • Key findings: numbered list of concrete answers to the scoped questions
   • Recommendations: what approach to take and why, based on the evidence
   • Open questions: anything still unclear that needs user input or deeper investigation
5. Present: open the file in the IDE or print the path. Summarize the key findings and recommendations in conversation — keep it brief, the file has the details.