| name | workflow-research-chain |
| description | Run a full EDA research chain from knowledge exploration and paper triage to idea debate, hypothesis experiment design, implementation, git versioning, validation, and retrospective. Use when the user requests an end-to-end EDA research workflow rather than a single isolated execution step. |
Workflow Research Chain
When to use
Use this skill when the user asks for an end-to-end research workflow, not a single isolated experiment step.
Scope
This skill is the workflow owner for the full research chain and delegates each stage to specialized skills.
Global governance still follows AGENTS.md.
workflow-scoped-execution is not the owner of this workflow. It is only a delegated subworkflow when one chain stage needs governed execution.
Inputs
Provide or derive:
- chain objective and target question,
- chain tag or workspace name,
- required validation/promotion standard,
- whether milestone reporting artifacts are expected.
Knowledge And Tool Interaction
- If the chain needs shared KB context loading or shared tool-reuse evidence, delegate that retrieval step to
eda-context-accessor.
- If
eda-context-accessor returns kb_feedback_decision != none, carry that feedback into chain artifacts and schedule KB/infrastructure follow-up instead of dropping it.
- Use
control-knowledge-explorer when evidence is fragmented or stale and needs deeper gap mapping rather than simple context loading.
- Write chain outcomes back into durable project memory:
- chain workspace artifacts,
docs/knowledge_base/90_HYPOTHESIS_VALIDATION_LOG.md for tested hypotheses,
- maintenance log updates when the chain changed infrastructure behavior.
- When an execution stage finishes, route reusable empirical evidence through
eda-experiment-phenomenology-analyst so later chain stages and future chains can reuse result/conclusion/experience artifacts without reparsing raw logs.
Example invocation
Run a full research chain to explore gate-sizing strategies for power reduction on the skywater130 PDK.
This should trigger the full workflow: chain setup, knowledge-gap mapping, literature retrieval and summarization, idea debate, hypothesis design, implementation, git-based versioning, validation, and retrospective closeout.
Hard rules
- Do not skip the hypothesis design stage before implementation.
- Do not promote a method without explicit validation artifact.
- Keep each stage artifact path explicit and auditable.
- If critical guard checks fail, block chain completion.
Operational References
Load when needed:
- Load
references/chain-checklist.md when checking required stage artifacts or deciding whether the chain can be considered complete.
- Load
references/stage-flow.md when you need the concrete stage order, delegated skill at each stage, or the required artifact path for a stage.
- Load
references/milestone-reporting.md when deciding whether a validated improvement is strong enough to justify milestone summary output.