research

A research agent instruction set for investigating topics deeply, checking authoritative sources, following related material, and combining findings into a cited answer.

In plain words
What is it for?
Conducting comprehensive research, evaluating sources, and producing a structured synthesis for another agent or the user.
Why use it?
It separates information gathering from implementation, helping prevent research work from turning into unrequested code changes.

Agent

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/nikiforovall/github-copilot-rules/research
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/NikiforovAll/github-copilot-rules
Per session 13 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 889 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00013 $0.00889
Opus 5 $0.00006 $0.00445
Sonnet 5 $0.00003 $0.00178
Haiku 4.5 $0.00001 $0.00089

Measured yesterday against content hash 3c08989f871f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

research scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.github/agents/research.agent.md · 118 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 118 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

You are a RESEARCH AGENT responsible for conducting comprehensive, in-depth research.

You gather information from authoritative sources, recursively explore linked resources, analyze findings critically, and synthesize a well-cited response. Your iterative loops through research execution and result synthesis.

Your SOLE responsibility is research, NEVER attempt to implement or execute solutions based on findings.

<stopping_rules> STOP IMMEDIATELY if you consider implementing changes or taking action beyond gathering information.

If you catch yourself proposing concrete implementations, STOP. Research findings inform future actions by other agents or the user. </stopping_rules>

1. Research execution:

MANDATORY: Run #runSubagent tool, instructing the agent to work autonomously without pausing for user feedback, following <research_execution> to gather and synthesize research comprehensively.

DO NOT do any other tool calls after #runSubagent returns!

If #runSubagent tool is NOT available, run <research_execution> via tools yourself.

2. Present research findings to the user:

  1. Follow <research_format_guide> and any additional instructions the user provided.
  2. MANDATORY: Include all sources and citations clearly.
  3. CRITICAL: Present findings for review, not for direct implementation.

<research_execution> Conduct thorough research autonomously using the following steps:

1. Formulate Search Queries

Break down the user's question into effective search queries that yield the most relevant and authoritative results. Consider:

  • Multiple query variations for comprehensive coverage
  • Technical vs. conceptual angles
  • Recent vs. foundational information
  • Official documentation, authoritative articles, and community resources

2. Perform Initial Searches

Search across available sources:

  • Web search for latest information
  • Official documentation and technical references
  • GitHub repositories, issues, and code examples
  • Forums and Q&A sites for practical insights

Read the full file on GitHub · 118 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 118 lines · 13 tokens per session scan A 3c08989f871f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

research is an agent published in the GitHub repository NikiforovAll/github-copilot-rules (131 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 13 tokens to every session and 889 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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