imsight-info-gathering

name	imsight-info-gathering
description	Use when explicitly invoking imsight-info-gathering, routing from another Imsight skill, requesting Imsight-style research or reporting, or using Imsight context for online search, source extraction or download, LibGen link finding, source ledgers, source packs, or cited synthesis.

Imsight Info Gathering

Overview

Use this skill as the Imsight research SOP for online information work. Prefer explicit source ledgers, primary-source bias, reproducible downloads, and synthesized conclusions over loose search-result summaries.

This skill can route to other Imsight skills in the same suite. If the task needs tool installation, network setup, proxy repair, environment bootstrapping, or documentation-specific writing guidance, use the matching Imsight skill before continuing.

When to Use

• Use for explicit or routed Imsight information-gathering work.
• Use for imsight-scoped online search, downloads, extraction, source ledgers or packs, LibGen links, comparisons, scans, and cited reports.
• Route installation, network repair, and writing-specific needs to the existing Imsight owners listed below.

Workflow

1. If no subcommand or actionable task is present, handle help.
2. Load a named subcommand page, or choose the applicable subcommand or sequence for a quick answer, source pack, hint guide, literature scan, market map, technical comparison, or full report.
3. Set the evidence bar: primary sources for technical, legal, financial, medical, standards, product-documentation, and company claims; corroborated reputable sources for news or market context.
4. Search broad, then narrow; use dedicated discovery, extraction, crawl, research, browsing, or command-line download tools as already routed below.
5. Maintain a source ledger and download durable material when requested or needed for an auditable corpus.
6. Synthesize findings, conflicts, uncertainty, and recommendations; use source-by-source summaries only when the user requests an annotated bibliography.
7. Route durable writing to imsight-doc-writing and LibGen work to commands/find-libgen.md.

If the task does not map cleanly to these steps, use your native planning tool with the existing subcommands, evidence bar, source-handling rules, routes, and output contract; do not weaken source or download constraints.

Invocation Contract

• Preferred explicit form: $imsight-info-gathering use <subcommand> to do <task>.
• Task-only form: $imsight-info-gathering <task prompt> means choose the applicable research subcommand or sequence from the task.
• No subcommand and no task means help.
• help summarizes this skill and lists the subcommands below.

Output Contract

When this skill writes hints, downloaded source corpora, source packs, reports, ledgers, or other skill-owned artifacts, choose the output directory in this order:

1. Use the output location explicitly provided by the user.
2. Otherwise, use IMSIGHT_SKILL_OUTPUT_DIR when set; relative values are resolved from the current project directory and absolute values are used as-is.
3. Otherwise, use <project-dir>/.imsight-arts/info-gather/.

Subcommands

Subcommand	Use For	Load
help	Explain this information-gathering skill and list available subcommands	This entrypoint
search	Discover relevant online sources and decide source classes	references/source-handling.md
download-sources	Download or extract durable source material into a local corpus	references/source-handling.md
source-ledger	Build or maintain a source ledger with source metadata, use, and reliability notes	references/source-handling.md
source-pack	Produce a local source pack with raw files, processed notes, and a manifest	references/source-handling.md and references/report-synthesis.md
synthesize-report	Produce a synthesized cited report, comparison, recommendation, market scan, or literature scan	references/report-synthesis.md
find-hint	Research a problem or topic and create a durable hint guide with source links and concise snippets	references/find-hint.md
find-libgen	Search a provided LibGen-style mirror and produce direct download links or wget commands using the bundled stdlib script	commands/find-libgen.md

Routing

• Use imsight-dev-box-init when missing tooling must be installed, such as Tavily CLI, crawling utilities, PDF tools, or other development/research dependencies.
• Use imsight-dev-box-network when downloads fail because of proxy, tunnel, DNS, SSH, or dev-box connectivity issues.
• Use imsight-doc-writing when a research output becomes a documentation-writing task: choosing a doc structure, matching a requested style, polishing Markdown prose, drafting a hint/report as durable docs, adding Mermaid diagrams, or finding writing-specific conventions. Do not duplicate those style rules here; load the doc-writing skill and follow its applicable subskill.
• Use existing Tavily skills when available: search for discovery, extract for specific URLs, crawl for documentation sections, and research for comprehensive multi-source reports.
• Use official documentation or primary repositories for technical library/API behavior before relying on blogs or generated examples.

Source Handling

Load references/source-handling.md when the task involves downloads, local corpora, source ledgers, web extraction, PDF/article collection, or reproducibility requirements.

Report Synthesis

Load references/report-synthesis.md when producing a synthesized report, comparison, recommendation, market/literature scan, or any answer that must reconcile multiple sources.

Hint Guides

Load references/find-hint.md when the user asks to find or create a hint, guide, how-to note, introductory note, or durable problem-solving context from online information.

LibGen Link Finding

Load commands/find-libgen.md when the user asks to search a LibGen mirror, resolve LibGen result pages into direct download URLs, or produce wget commands from found LibGen entries.

Defaults

• Save working material under the output directory selected by the Output Contract when local artifacts are useful; otherwise avoid clutter.
• Use stable, descriptive filenames: <date>-<publisher-or-domain>-<slug>.<ext>.
• Cite sources with links in the final answer whenever external information shaped the conclusion.
• State uncertainty directly when sources disagree, are stale, or are not authoritative enough.

Guardrails

• DO NOT treat search-result snippets as a sufficient evidence base.
• DO NOT omit the source ledger for durable research work.
• DO NOT use weak secondary sources when a responsible primary source exists.
• DO NOT write source-by-source summaries unless the user requests an annotated bibliography.
• DO NOT bypass the maintained LibGen workflow or documentation-writing route.