research

Research Skill

Overview

Research a technical topic and produce a well-sourced document with direct quotes, industry references, and a clear recommendation.

When to Use

• Comparing architectural approaches (monorepo vs multi-repo, REST vs gRPC, etc.)
• Evaluating tools or technologies for adoption
• Building evidence-based ADRs or decision documents
• Answering "what do experts recommend for X?" questions
• Any time the user needs citations and industry backing for a decision

Input

The user provides a topic or question, optionally with:

• Context about their team/project
• Specific concerns to address
• Where to save the output

If not specified, save to docs/ in the current repo.

Workflow

digraph research_flow {
    rankdir=TB;
    node [shape=box];

    input [label="1. Clarify Topic & Scope"];
    research [label="2. Research (Parallel Agents)"];
    synthesize [label="3. Synthesize Findings"];
    write [label="4. Write Document"];
    review [label="5. Show Summary to User"];

    input -> research;
    research -> synthesize;
    synthesize -> write;
    write -> review;
}

Phase 1: Clarify Topic & Scope

Ask the user (if not already clear):

• What decision or question are they trying to answer?
• Who is the audience? (teammates, leadership, future self)
• Any constraints or preferences to bias toward?
• Where should the doc be saved?

Skip if the user already provided enough context.

Phase 2: Research (Use Parallel Agents)

Launch parallel Task agents to maximize coverage:

• Agent 1: Official sources — Documentation from the primary tools/frameworks involved (e.g., Terraform docs, Atmos docs, AWS docs)
• Agent 2: Industry voices — Blog posts, conference talks, and recommendations from recognized companies and engineers
• Agent 3: Community experience — GitHub discussions, Stack Overflow, Reddit, real-world case studies and post-mortems

Each agent should return:

• Direct quotes with attribution
• Source URLs
• Key data points (scale thresholds, timelines, costs)