| name | research-and-synthesis |
| description | Gather and synthesize repo, official documentation, release, issue, design, or incident context into durable notes. Use when planning or implementation needs researched evidence. |
Research And Synthesis
Use this skill when a task needs external documentation, comparisons, release context, design references, or durable supporting notes.
Workflow
- Define the research question clearly.
- Decide where the notes belong:
- existing plan (if an ongoing plan document already exists in the workspace):
plan/<topic>/research/
- standalone research:
plan/research-<topic>-<timestamp>/
- Use supported MCP skills only when the user has enabled them, including
mcp-open-bridge when a second-pass synthesis or option comparison would help.
- Prefer official docs, maintainers, and primary-source project context over secondary sources or unverified community comments.
- Write the findings into repo files so planning and implementation can reload them later. If no relevant information can be found, create a note detailing the search attempts, clearly state the knowledge gap, and ask for guidance only when the gap blocks the next step.
Relevant MCP Skills
mcp-context7 for official library and framework documentation
mcp-github for issues, PRs, releases, and workflow context
mcp-figma for design specifications and component intent
mcp-sentry for production errors, releases, and incident context
mcp-playwright for live browser evidence when behavior must be observed directly
mcp-open-bridge for second-opinion synthesis, batch comparison, and focused file analysis
If External Context Is Unavailable
- Say which relevant MCP is missing or not enabled.
- If an enabled MCP returns an execution error, document the error in the research note and fall back to local repo context.
- Continue with repo-local research and clearly label the gap.
- Do not cite or rely on sources you could not access.
- Do not pretend unsupported web-search MCPs are available.
Output
Save a markdown note that includes:
- Question
- Summary
- Key findings
- Recommendation
- References or source pointers
- Saved path