ace:research-phase

A research command for gathering background information before planning a project phase.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to identify research topics, confirm their scope, and start parallel investigations before creating the phase plan.
Why use it?
It highlights unfamiliar technologies, integrations, competing approaches, and other areas where planning needs evidence first.

Command

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 commands/agricidaniel/ace-claude-code/research-phase
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/AgriciDaniel/ace-claude-code
Per session 10 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 1,017 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 $0.00010 $0.01017
Opus 5 $0.00005 $0.00508
Sonnet 5 $0.00002 $0.00203
Haiku 4.5 $0.00001 $0.00102

Measured 2d ago against content hash 1503e9f2069c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

ace:research-phase 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 2d ago.

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.

.ace/commands/research-phase.md · 213 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 213 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Use when the phase involves:

  • Unfamiliar technologies
  • Complex integrations
  • Industry best practices needed
  • Multiple competing solutions to evaluate

Required: @.ace/planning/STATE.md @.ace/planning/PROJECT.md @.ace/planning/ROADMAP.md

Optional: @.ace/planning/codebase/STACK.md (for tech context)

1. Identify Research Topics

Read phase goal and identify:

  • Technologies mentioned
  • Integration patterns needed
  • Unknown areas requiring research
+==============================================================+
|                    RESEARCH PHASE [N]                        |
+==============================================================+

Phase: [N] - [Phase Name]
Goal: [Phase goal]

Identified Research Topics:
1. [Topic 1] - [Why it needs research]
2. [Topic 2] - [Why it needs research]
3. [Topic 3] - [Why it needs research]

+==============================================================+

2. Confirm Research Scope

Use AskUserQuestion: "I've identified these topics for research. Any to add or remove?"

  • Options: "Proceed with these" / "Add topics" / "Remove some"

3. Spawn Research Agents

Launch parallel Explore agents for each topic:

CRITICAL: Send ALL Task calls in ONE message.

For Each Topic:

Research [Topic] for Phase [N] of [Project Name].

Context:
- Project type: [From config.json]
- Stack: [From STACK.md or PROJECT.md]
- Goal: [Phase goal]

Research:
1. Best practices and patterns
2. Common pitfalls to avoid
3. Recommended libraries/tools
4. Example implementations

Return structured findings.

4. Collect Research Results

Wait for all agents to complete.

Aggregate findings into sections:

  • Technologies evaluated
  • Recommended approaches
  • Risks and mitigations
  • Code examples found

5. Create Research Document

Write to .ace/references/phase-[N]-research.md:

Read the full file on GitHub · 213 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. 2d ago First seen · 213 lines · 10 tokens per session scan A 1503e9f2069c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

ace:research-phase is a command published in the GitHub repository AgriciDaniel/ace-claude-code (24 stars, last pushed 4mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 10 tokens to every session and 1,017 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.