biz-research-scaffold

name

biz-research-scaffold

description

Scaffold a new academic research repository for business/social science fields (economics, finance, accounting, management, marketing, etc.). Use when the user wants to start a new research project, create a paper repo, set up a research directory structure, or says things like "scaffold a research repo", "start a new paper on X", "new research project", "set up a project for X". Detects OS and installed tools first. Asks only what is unclear, then runs the scaffold script.

Biz Research Scaffold

Phase 0: Context Sniffing

Understand where we are BEFORE asking questions.

echo "CWD=$(pwd)"
echo "CWD_NAME=$(basename "$(pwd)")"
ls -1a "$(pwd)" | head -20

Decision table:

CWD state	Action
Empty (no files, or only .git) + dirname NOT generic (not ~, Desktop, code, research)	Infer project name = dirname. Location = CWD. Skip project name + location questions.
Empty + dirname generic	Ask project name. Location = CWD. Skip location question.
Has scaffold dirs (data/, code/, paper/, refs/)	Warn: already scaffolded. Ask user if re-scaffold wanted. If yes, ask for new name/path.
Non-empty, non-scaffold	Warn: CWD not empty, not a recognized project. Ask if still want to scaffold here.

Generic dirname list: ~, home, Desktop, Documents, code, dev, projects, research, work, src, root, tmp, Downloads.

Phase 1: Detect OS + Tools (merged)

OS=$(uname -s 2>/dev/null || echo "WINDOWS")
echo "$OS"

# Stata detection must handle macOS GUI installs. Stata often has no `stata`
# CLI on PATH; official app bundle lives under /Applications/Stata/Stata*.app.
stata_found=no
for bin in stata StataMP StataSE StataBE StataIC; do
  if command -v "$bin" >/dev/null 2>&1; then stata_found=yes; break; fi
done
if [ "$stata_found" = no ] && [ "$OS" = Darwin ]; then
  for app in /Applications/Stata/Stata*.app /Applications/Stata*.app "$HOME"/Applications/Stata/Stata*.app "$HOME"/Applications/Stata*.app; do
    [ -d "$app" ] && stata_found=yes && break
  done
fi
echo "stata:$stata_found"

for tool in R uv python3 git; do
  command -v "$tool" >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "$tool:yes" || echo "$tool:no"
done

OS	Script
Darwin / Linux	scripts/scaffold.sh
WINDOWS / error	scripts/scaffold.ps1

Analysis tools: stata, R, uv/python3. Infrastructure: git.

Phase 2: Decide What to Ask

Only ask what Phase 0 didn't resolve:

Question	Skip if	Ask if
Project name	Inferred from CWD dirname, or stated in user message	Dirname generic, or user didn't state
Primary tool	Exactly 1 analysis tool detected → auto-select	0 detected, or 2+ detected
Paper language	Stated in user message	Always ask — user choice, not inferrable from path/system locale
Location	CWD empty + inferred name, or user gave path	Ambiguous — CWD non-empty, or user unclear

If 0 tools detected, list all options with install instructions:

• Stata: stata.com/download
• R: brew install r (mac) / winget install RProject.R (win)
• Python/uv: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh (mac/linux) / irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex (win pwsh)

Combine all remaining questions into ONE AskUserQuestion call. If nothing unclear, skip Phase 2 entirely → go straight to Phase 3.

Phase 3: Run Scaffold Script

Script path: <skill_dir>/scripts/scaffold.sh (or .ps1 for Windows).

When CWD IS the target (empty dir, inferred name):

bash "<skill_dir>/scripts/scaffold.sh" "$(dirname "$CWD")" "$(basename "$CWD")"

When CWD is parent, new subdir needed:

bash "<skill_dir>/scripts/scaffold.sh" "$CWD" "<project_name>"

When user specified custom path:

bash "<skill_dir>/scripts/scaffold.sh" "<parent_dir>" "<project_name>"

The script creates all directories, writes .gitignore from templates/gitignore.txt, writes a root README.md, and runs git init if git is available. It tolerates an existing empty target directory.

Phase 4: Final Message

After script completes:

• If chosen tool not detected: "Warning: {tool} not found. Install before running analysis."
• Always: "To download papers into this project, use ebsco-literature-pipeline with target dir: {full_path}/refs/"
• Always: "PDFs under refs/*/pdfs/ are gitignored by default (large binaries). Metadata files (papers.json, manifest.csv, downloaded.json) are tracked."
• If paper language is Chinese: "论文语言：中文。README 和初始文件使用英文标题（学术惯例），如需中文内容请自行编辑。"