research

name	research
description	Run staged web investigation and produce one durable paper-style markdown report with BibTeX-compatible references.

research - Staged Web Investigation Protocol

When to Use

• You need to investigate a topic using external web sources
• You need a durable, auditable report (not only chat output)
• The problem requires evidence synthesis from multiple sources
• You need explicit citation traceability from claims to references

Invocation Scope

• This skill is standalone and user-invoked directly.
• v1 scope is direct invocation only.
• Do not couple this protocol to other routes, phases, or automatic invocation flows.

Inputs

Required:

• Research question (single sentence)

Optional:

• Context and constraints
• Time/depth budget
• Preferred source domains
• Output path

Output Contract

Produce exactly one paper-style markdown artifact (.md) with this mandatory structure:

# <Title>

## Abstract
## Research Question
## Scope and Constraints
## Method (Staged Protocol)
## Findings by Stage
### Stage 1 - Problem Framing
### Stage 2 - Source Discovery
### Stage 3 - Source Triage
### Stage 4 - Evidence Extraction
### Stage 5 - Synthesis and Limits
## Discussion
## Conclusion
## Limitations
## References

Rules:

1. The report is a single durable artifact.
2. Every non-trivial claim must include an in-text citation key, e.g. [@smith2024llm].
3. References must be BibTeX-compatible entries embedded in markdown fenced code blocks.
4. Citation keys used in the body must exist in References.

Staged Protocol

Follow stages in order and do not skip forward.

Stage 1: Problem Framing

• Normalize the question.
• Define explicit scope boundaries and out-of-scope points.
• Define success criteria for the investigation.

Exit condition:

• Problem statement and boundaries are unambiguous.

Stage 2: Source Discovery

• Collect candidate sources from diverse origins (specs, official docs, papers, benchmarks, incident reports when relevant).
• Capture URL, title, publisher/author, date, and source type.

Exit condition:

• Candidate set covers at least 3 independent sources or a justified smaller set if the domain is niche.

Stage 3: Source Triage

• Score each source for relevance, credibility, recency, and evidence type.
• Drop low-quality or redundant sources with explicit rationale.

Exit condition:

• Curated source set is sufficient to answer the question.

Stage 4: Evidence Extraction

• Extract claims, methods, metrics, and constraints from curated sources.
• Record direct evidence snippets with attribution.
• Distinguish fact vs interpretation.

Exit condition:

• Each major sub-question has evidence coverage.

Stage 5: Synthesis and Limits

• Reconcile agreements and conflicts across sources.
• State confidence per key conclusion (high/medium/low) with rationale.
• Explicitly document unresolved uncertainties and limitations.

Exit condition:

• Conclusions are traceable and uncertainty is explicit.

Citation Standard (BibTeX-Compatible)

In References, provide entries in this style:

@article{smith2024llm,
  title={Example Title},
  author={Smith, Alice and Doe, Bob},
  journal={Journal Name},
  year={2024},
  url={https://example.org/paper}
}

Minimum fields by source type:

• Article/paper: author, title, year, url (+ venue field when available)
• Website/doc page: title, year (or note={Accessed: YYYY-MM-DD}), url
• Book/report: author or institution, title, year, url or publisher metadata

Quality Gate Checklist

Before finishing, verify:

• Exactly one markdown report was produced
• All mandatory sections are present
• Every non-trivial claim has an in-text citation key
• Every citation key resolves to one BibTeX-compatible entry
• Broken or unreachable links are flagged in Limitations
• The report reflects staged progression, not an unstructured source dump

Non-Goals (v1)

• No automatic routing or scheduler integration
• No coupling to phase-specific workflows
• No generation of multiple report artifacts for one invocation
• No hidden side artifacts as required outputs