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Research-before-coding workflow. Search for existing tools, libraries, and patterns before writing custom code. Invokes the researcher agent.
Instinct-based learning system that observes sessions via hooks, creates atomic instincts with confidence scoring, and evolves them into skills/commands/agents. v2.1 adds project-scoped instincts to prevent cross-project contamination.
Orchestrate building a brand-new feature end to end — research, plan, TDD implementation, review, and gated commit — by delegating each phase to the matching ECC agent. Use when adding a capability that does not exist yet.
Orchestrate bootstrapping a working MVP from a design or spec document — ingest the doc, plan thin vertical slices, scaffold the first end-to-end slice, then TDD-implement, review, and gated commit. Use to turn an SDD/PRD into a running starting point.
Orchestrate altering an existing, working feature to new desired behavior — update its tests to the new spec, change the implementation to match, review, and gated commit. Use when behavior is not broken but should be different.
Orchestrate fixing a bug — reproduce it as a failing regression test, fix to green, review, and gated commit — by delegating each phase to the matching ECC agent. Use when existing behavior is broken or wrong.
Shared orchestration engine for the orch-* skill family. Defines the gated Research-Plan-TDD-Review-Commit pipeline, the size classifier, the agent map, and the two human gates that the orch-* operation skills delegate to. Not usually invoked directly.
| name | search-first |
| description | Research-before-coding workflow. Search for existing tools, libraries, and patterns before writing custom code. Invokes the researcher agent. |
| origin | ECC |
Systematizes the "search for existing solutions before implementing" workflow.
Use this skill when:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 0. TOOL AVAILABILITY PREFLIGHT │
│ Check search channels before relying on │
│ them; report skipped channels honestly │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1. NEED ANALYSIS │
│ Define what functionality is needed │
│ Identify language/framework constraints │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 2. PARALLEL SEARCH (researcher agent) │
│ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │
│ │ npm / │ │ MCP / │ │ GitHub / │ │
│ │ PyPI │ │ Skills │ │ Web │ │
│ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 3. EVALUATE │
│ Score candidates (functionality, maint, │
│ community, docs, license, deps) │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 4. DECIDE │
│ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌─────────┐ │
│ │ Adopt │ │ Extend │ │ Build │ │
│ │ as-is │ │ /Wrap │ │ Custom │ │
│ └─────────┘ └──────────┘ └─────────┘ │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 5. IMPLEMENT │
│ Install package / Configure MCP / │
│ Write minimal custom code │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
| Signal | Action |
|---|---|
| Exact match, well-maintained, MIT/Apache | Adopt — install and use directly |
| Partial match, good foundation | Extend — install + write thin wrapper |
| Multiple weak matches | Compose — combine 2-3 small packages |
| Nothing suitable found | Build — write custom, but informed by research |
This is agent guidance, not an executable setup script. Check only the channels that are relevant to the task and project in front of you.
| Channel | Check | If missing |
|---|---|---|
| Repository search | rg --files and targeted rg queries | State that only visible files were inspected |
| Package registry | npm --version, python -m pip --version, or project package manager | Use web/docs search and avoid claiming registry coverage |
| GitHub CLI | gh auth status | Use public web or local git history only |
| MCP/docs tools | Available tool list or local MCP config | Fall back to official docs/web search |
| Skills directory | ls ~/.claude/skills ~/.codex/skills where applicable | Say no local skill catalog was available |
Before writing a utility or adding functionality, mentally run through:
rg through relevant modules/tests first~/.claude/settings.json and search~/.claude/skills/For non-trivial functionality, launch the researcher agent:
Agent(subagent_type="general-purpose", prompt="
Research existing tools for: [DESCRIPTION]
Language/framework: [LANG]
Constraints: [ANY]
Search: npm/PyPI, MCP servers, Claude Code skills, GitHub
Return: Structured comparison with recommendation
")
Older Claude Code docs may call this Task(...); use the current agent/subagent
tool name exposed by the active harness.
eslint, ruff, textlint, markdownlintprettier, black, gofmtjest, pytest, go testhusky, lint-staged, pre-commitunstructured, pdfplumber, mammothhttpx (Python), ky/undici (Node)zod (TS), pydantic (Python)remark, unified, markdown-itsharp, imageminThe planner should invoke researcher before Phase 1 (Architecture Review):
The architect should consult researcher for:
Combine for progressive discovery:
Need: Check markdown files for broken links
Search: npm "markdown dead link checker"
Found: textlint-rule-no-dead-link (score: 9/10)
Action: ADOPT — npm install textlint-rule-no-dead-link
Result: Zero custom code, battle-tested solution
Need: Resilient HTTP client with retries and timeout handling
Search: npm "http client retry", PyPI "httpx retry"
Found: got (Node) with retry plugin, httpx (Python) with built-in retry
Action: ADOPT — use got/httpx directly with retry config
Result: Zero custom code, production-proven libraries
Need: Validate project config files against a schema
Search: npm "config linter schema", "json schema validator cli"
Found: ajv-cli (score: 8/10)
Action: ADOPT + EXTEND — install ajv-cli, write project-specific schema
Result: 1 package + 1 schema file, no custom validation logic