gsd:research-phase

Note: This is a standalone research command. For most workflows, use /gsd:plan-phase which integrates research automatically.

Use this command when:

• You want to research without planning yet
• You want to re-research after planning is complete
• You need to investigate before deciding if a phase is feasible

Orchestrator role: Parse phase, validate against roadmap, check existing research, gather context, spawn researcher agent, present results.

Why subagent: Research burns context fast (WebSearch, Context7 queries, source verification). Fresh 200k context for investigation. Main context stays lean for user interaction.

Normalize phase input in step 1 before any directory lookups.

0. Resolve Model Profile

Read model profile for agent spawning:

MODEL_PROFILE=$(cat .planning/config.json 2>/dev/null | grep -o '"model_profile"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"[^"]*"' | grep -o '"[^"]*"$' | tr -d '"' || echo "balanced")

Default to "balanced" if not set.

Model lookup table:

Agent	quality	balanced	budget
gsd-phase-researcher	opus	sonnet	haiku

Store resolved model for use in Task calls below.

1. Normalize and Validate Phase

# Normalize phase number (8 → 08, but preserve decimals like 2.1 → 02.1)
if [[ "$ARGUMENTS" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]]; then
  PHASE=$(printf "%02d" "$ARGUMENTS")
elif [[ "$ARGUMENTS" =~ ^([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)$ ]]; then
  PHASE=$(printf "%02d.%s" "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}" "${BASH_REMATCH[2]}")
else
  PHASE="$ARGUMENTS"
fi

grep -A5 "Phase ${PHASE}:" .planning/ROADMAP.md 2>/dev/null

If not found: Error and exit. If found: Extract phase number, name, description.

2. Check Existing Research

ls .planning/phases/${PHASE}-*/RESEARCH.md 2>/dev/null

If exists: Offer: 1) Update research, 2) View existing, 3) Skip. Wait for response.