| name | bmad-research |
| description | Conducts market, competitive, domain, and technical research using live web sources,
producing a cited research-report.md to inform BMAD planning decisions.
Use when the user says:
- "research [topic/market/technology]"
- "competitive analysis" or "who are the competitors"
- "market size" or "market landscape"
- "technical research" or "evaluate [technology/framework]"
- "domain research" or "industry analysis"
- "what does the market look like"
- "find out about [technology/space]"
- "I need research before we plan"
- "gather information on [topic]"
Supports three modes: Create (new research), Update (refresh existing report with new
sources), Validate (cross-check claims in an existing report against live sources).
Output lands in bmad-output/ as a cited research-report.md ready for downstream
planning skills (business-analyst, product-manager, system-architect).
|
| allowed-tools | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep, WebSearch, WebFetch, TodoWrite |
BMAD Research
Conducts structured, cited research across three modes to feed BMAD planning workflows.
Output is a research-report.md in bmad-output/, ready for handoff to planning skills.
Step 0 — Clarify Intent
Before searching, confirm:
- Mode — Create / Update / Validate (default: Create)
- Research type — Market | Competitive | Technical | Domain (may combine)
- Topic — What is being researched?
- Output destination — Default:
bmad-output/research-report.md
If project-context.md exists, read it first (bmad-output/project-context.md) for
scope constraints.
Step 1 — Plan the Research
Use the source-type strategy guide to pick sources by research type:
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/bmad-research/scripts/research-sources.sh
Run it (Bash) to print the guide, then sketch a query plan:
- 3–5 targeted WebSearch queries per research type
- Specific URLs to WebFetch (industry reports, competitor sites, docs)
- Triangulation goal: each key claim backed by 2+ independent sources
Track progress with TodoWrite.
Step 2 — Execute Research
Market Research
- Search: market size, TAM/SAM/SOM, growth CAGR, key trends, growth drivers
- Sources: Statista, Grand View Research, CB Insights, SEC filings, industry reports
- Quantify everything possible: dollar values, percentages, time frames
Competitive Research
- Search: top competitors, feature comparisons, pricing, user reviews, funding
- Sources: G2/Capterra (reviews), Crunchbase (funding/size), company IR pages,
product documentation, Reddit/HN community sentiment
- Build a feature comparison matrix
Technical Research
- Search: framework benchmarks, adoption rates, community health, known trade-offs
- Sources: Official docs, GitHub stars/issues, npm/PyPI stats, State of JS/CSS,
ThoughtWorks Radar, Stack Overflow surveys
- Evaluate: maturity, ecosystem, licensing, long-term viability
Domain Research
- Search: regulatory landscape, industry standards, key players, domain glossary
- Sources: Government databases, standards bodies, academic papers (Google Scholar,
arXiv), trade publications
Citation discipline: for every factual claim, record source URL + access date.
When a claim cannot be verified across 2+ sources, mark it [UNVERIFIED].
Step 3 — Update Mode
If mode is Update, read the existing report first. Then:
- Identify sections with stale data (>6 months old, or marked
[UNVERIFIED])
- Re-run targeted searches for those sections only
- Append a "Last Updated" entry per section
- Increment the report version
Step 4 — Validate Mode
If mode is Validate:
- Extract all quantitative claims from the existing report
- Spot-check each claim with a fresh WebSearch
- Mark each claim:
[VERIFIED], [CONTRADICTED source: …], or [UNVERIFIED]
- Append a "Validation Summary" section noting overall confidence
Step 5 — Write the Report
Use the template:
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/bmad-research/templates/research-report.template.md
Fill all sections. Sections irrelevant to the research type may be omitted (mark as
N/A). Write the completed report to:
bmad-output/research-report.md # or a user-specified path
Required sections regardless of mode:
- Executive Summary with key findings and bottom line
- Research Scope (in/out of scope, time frame)
- Methodology (sources used, tools, limitations)
- Gaps & Opportunities
- Recommendations (planning actions, not implementation actions)
- Full source bibliography (Appendix B) with URLs and access dates
Step 6 — Handoff
After writing the report, tell the user:
- The output path
- The 3 most important findings in plain language
- Which BMAD planning skill should consume this report next:
- Market/Competitive → business-analyst or product-manager
- Technical → system-architect
- Domain → business-analyst
Record the research decision in bmad-output/decision-log.md:
## Research: [Topic] — [Date]
- Mode: [Create/Update/Validate]
- Types: [Market/Competitive/Technical/Domain]
- Key finding: [one sentence]
- Report: bmad-output/research-report.md
- Next skill: [skill name]
Subagent Strategy
For broad research covering multiple types simultaneously, fan out parallel agents:
Agent 1 — Market Agent
Read project-context.md, then conduct market research on [topic]:
TAM/SAM/SOM, growth rates, key trends. Write findings to
bmad-output/research-scratch/market.md with full citations.
Agent 2 — Competitive Agent
Read project-context.md, then research top 3-5 competitors for [topic]:
features, pricing, strengths/weaknesses, user sentiment. Write findings to
bmad-output/research-scratch/competitive.md with full citations.
Agent 3 — Technical/Domain Agent
Read project-context.md, then research technical landscape for [topic]:
technology options, ecosystem health, standards. Write findings to
bmad-output/research-scratch/technical.md with full citations.
After all agents complete, synthesize scratch files into the final report using the
template. Delete scratch files after synthesis.
Part of the BMAD Planning & Orchestrator plugin — a Claude Code harness for the BMAD Method by the BMAD Code Organization (https://github.com/bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD). Implements the spirit of bmad-market/domain/technical-research. All methodology credit belongs to the BMAD Code Organization.
