research

name	research
description	Investigate a question from real sources and land cited findings. Use when the user explicitly invokes the research pipeline.

Research pipeline

Use this pipeline when the deliverable is an answer, not a change: a question whose answer must come from sources rather than memory. Treat the invocation text as the research question. The run is read-only outside its own artifacts — findings that demand changes become work items or decision entries, never edits made mid-run.

Use the task supplied alongside this explicitly invoked skill. Record the actual runtime, codex or copilot, as harness in the run ledger.

1. Intake

Clarify the requested outcome from available context. Inspect the repository before asking questions that the files can answer. Create the run folder and write task.md containing the outcome, constraints, assumptions, and acceptance checks. Reserve an empty evidence/ folder.

2. Investigate

Identify where the answer actually lives — repository files, primary documentation, live systems, the web — and consult the strongest sources available, not the most convenient. Capture every consulted source in sources.md in the run folder: what it is, where it lives, what it says that matters, and how much weight it deserves. Separate observed fact from inference; when sources conflict, record the conflict instead of silently picking a winner. Stop gathering when new sources stop changing the picture.

3. Synthesize

Write findings.md in the run folder: the answer to the task's question, with each material claim tied to a source recorded in sources.md. State confidence plainly and name what evidence would change the conclusion. List what remains unknown instead of papering over it. If the findings warrant action, name the follow-up explicitly — a work item, a decision entry — rather than leaving it implied.

4. Record

Always run this stage, including after rejection, failure, or abort. Append exactly one compact JSON object line to .base/history.jsonl with slug, date, pipeline, harness, outcome, and paths. Use completed, aborted, or failed for outcome; never rewrite previous lines.