| name | research-brief-builder |
| description | Produce a comparative competitive brief that synthesizes multiple sources on a market, product category, or set of competing products. Use when the user asks for a competitive brief, landscape overview, positioning analysis, or vendor comparison across several sources, with comparable dimensions (pricing, positioning, strengths, weaknesses), a positioning diagram, and a recommended action. Do not use for summarizing a single document, marketing content, or single-metric lookups. |
| license | MIT |
Research Brief Builder
Turn a scattered set of sources on a market or set of competing products into a
short, structured, fully-sourced competitive brief — with a positioning diagram
and a recommended action.
When to use
Use this skill when the user asks for any of:
- A competitive brief or landscape on a market or product category.
- A comparison across multiple products or vendors with a recommendation.
- A positioning analysis that requires synthesizing several sources.
- A one-pager that a stakeholder can read before a planning meeting.
Do not use this skill for:
- Summarizing a single document (that's a summarization task, not a brief).
- Authoring marketing content (blog posts, launch copy, ads).
- Looking up a single internal number from a spreadsheet or database.
If in doubt, ask the user whether they want a comparative brief with a
recommendation, or a summary of one source.
Workflow
Follow these steps in order. Do not skip steps and do not merge them.
- Scope the ask. Confirm the products or vendors in play, the audience
for the brief, and the decision the reader needs to make. If the user
hasn't named the products, ask.
- Gather sources. If the user has provided files, work only from those.
Otherwise search the web for reputable sources (vendor pages, third-party
reviews, analyst notes). Once the source list is settled, run
scripts/collate_sources.py to produce a normalized index (title,
headings, tables, word count) — the agent uses this as a checklist so no
source is silently dropped and none is silently invented.
- Compare on fixed dimensions. For every product, extract: positioning
statement, pricing (or "not published"), notable strengths, notable
weaknesses. Use the fixed section list in
references/brief-structure.md.
- Apply the sourcing rules. Every quantitative claim must cite its
source. Never invent a figure. Flag gaps explicitly. Ignore off-topic
material. See references/sourcing-rules.md.
- Draw the positioning diagram. Place every product on two named,
justified axes as a Mermaid quadrant or matrix. See
references/diagram-guide.md.
- Write the recommended action. End the brief with a short, direct
recommendation for the reader's decision. No hedging.
Output shape
The brief must always contain, in this order:
- Overview (one paragraph — the market and the question).
- Positioning (one short paragraph per product).
- Pricing comparison (a table).
- Strengths and weaknesses (a table or paired lists).
- Positioning diagram (Mermaid).
- Recommended action (one to three sentences, direct).
See references/brief-structure.md for the
exact section templates.
Scripts
scripts/collate_sources.py — reads a list of source files and writes a
JSON index summarizing each one (title, headings, word count, whether it
contains a table). Optional but recommended: it makes the sourcing rules
auditable at a glance.
Non-goals
This skill does not scrape sites, does not shell out, does not fetch from
the network, does not require any API keys, and does not write to disk
outside a caller-specified output path (which it validates). It is a
synthesis workflow — the reasoning is the product.
