research-web

name	research-web
description	Use when the user runs /research-web or asks for web research on a topic, person, company, library, market, or jobs and wants results inline in the current conversation. Calls the researcher MCP directly; results land in main context. Prefer /research-subagent if context is precious or the user asked for a deep/report mode search.

/research-web — Inline Research

Direct-call researcher MCP skill. Results land in the main context — keep the budget small.

REQUIRED SUB-SKILL: researcher-mcp — load it to pick the right tool and mode, and to use the shared research brief template.

When to Use

• User ran /research-web [query] or asked for a quick lookup
• The research output is short enough to live inline (summary/quick modes)
• Main context is not tight

When NOT to Use

• User wants a deep report, or research will return multi-page output → use /research-subagent
• Context window is already near capacity → use /research-subagent

Flow

1. Parse input.

   • If args provided on invocation, treat as the query.
   • If no args, ask the user for the query.

2. Build the research brief (see researcher-mcp skill for template).

   • Infer Context and Prior knowledge from ambient conversation — do not ask.
   • Draft "What to look for" and "What to invalidate" from project context.
   • Ask the user for clarifications only if strictly needed (hard cap: 3 questions).

3. Pick the MCP tool using the matrix in researcher-mcp.

   • If query maps unambiguously to one tool, skip asking.
   • If ambiguous, ask with multiple choice.

4. Confirm the brief. Show the user the compact brief and ask "proceed?" before spending tokens on the search.

5. Call the MCP tool. Defaults:

   • mode: "summary" (override only if user explicitly asked for quick, report, or deep)
   • max_queries: 3
   • max_sources: 5
   • Pass intent and domain_profile if relevant (see researcher-mcp)
   • Do not pass summary_style — server default (abstract) is correct for inline

6. Present results.

   • Inline response (no path field): output goes straight to the user — do not re-synthesize.
   • Progressive envelope (path field present): present the summary content, show the toc headings, then offer: "Full report saved at <path> — want me to read a specific section?"

Context Budget

Hard caps are intentional. Do not raise max_queries or max_sources for an inline call. If the user needs more depth, route them to /research-subagent.

Example Invocation

User: /research-web rust async cancellation patterns

You:

1. Infer context (Rust project, currently working on async code).
2. Draft brief — What to look for: canonical patterns, tokio docs, recent (2024+). What to invalidate: pre-tokio-1.0 info.
3. Pick tool: mcp__researcher__research_code (Claude Code) / researcher_research_code (pi) — framework-specific.
4. Show compact brief, ask "proceed?"
5. On confirm: call research_code(framework="tokio", repo="tokio-rs/tokio", aspects=["community","changelog"], query="async cancellation patterns"). (research_code takes no mode / max_queries / max_sources — those apply to research.)
6. Present the MCP output.

Common Mistakes

• Asking too many clarifying questions. Hard cap at 3. Infer aggressively from ambient context.
• Skipping the brief confirm step. The confirm step is cheap insurance against a wasted search.
• Raising the context budget "just this once". Don't. Route to /research-subagent instead.
• Re-synthesizing inline MCP output. The user already sees the tool output; adding your own synthesis burns tokens for no gain.
• Dumping a progressive envelope JSON to the user. If path is present, present the summary content and toc — not the raw JSON.