research-methodology

research-methodology is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from NimbleBrainInc/upjack. It costs 0 tokens per session (431 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A step-by-step method for researching a topic, assessing sources, and combining findings. It covers academic papers, industry reports, expert writing, and news.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to define research questions, find sources, judge their credibility and date, extract distinct insights, and record supporting details.
Why use it?
It reduces unfocused searching, duplicate notes, and reliance on weak or outdated sources.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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 skills/nimblebraininc/upjack/research-methodology
Any agent
npx skills add NimbleBrainInc/upjack --skill research-methodology
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/NimbleBrainInc/upjack

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for research-methodology

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nimblebraininc/upjack/research-methodology.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/nimblebraininc/upjack/research-methodology)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/nimblebraininc/upjack/research-methodology"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nimblebraininc/upjack/research-methodology.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 0 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 431 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 $0.00000 $0.00431
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00216
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00086
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00043

Measured 5d ago against content hash 159ca9dc1c0c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

research-methodology 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 5d 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.

examples/research-assistant/skills/research-methodology/SKILL.md · 67 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 67 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Research Methodology

Systematic approach to investigating topics, evaluating sources, and synthesizing findings.

When to Use

  • A new topic is created
  • Daily topic monitoring (triggered via schedule)
  • User asks to research a topic or find sources

Research Process

1. Topic Scoping

Before searching, understand what you're looking for:

  • Read the topic's key_questions for specific angles
  • Check existing sources and notes to avoid duplication
  • Identify gaps in current coverage

2. Source Discovery

Use platform:web_search with targeted queries:

  • Start broad, then narrow based on initial findings
  • Search for: academic papers, industry reports, expert blogs, news articles
  • Try multiple query formulations for comprehensive coverage

3. Source Evaluation

For each potential source:

  • Assess credibility (1-5 scale per context.md guidelines)
  • Check publication date for recency
  • Note author credentials and potential bias
  • Create a source entity with full metadata

4. Note Extraction

Use platform:web_scrape or platform:pdf_extract to read sources:

  • Create one note per distinct insight
  • Tag with appropriate claim_type
  • Include direct quotes for key claims
  • Link note to both source and topic via relationships

5. Synthesis

When the user asks for a report or when sufficient notes exist:

  • Group notes by theme, not by source
  • Identify consensus and conflicts across sources
  • Highlight the strongest evidence
  • Note gaps and limitations

Daily Monitoring

For the daily schedule:

  1. List all active topics
  2. For each topic, search for new developments (past 24 hours)
  3. If significant new information found:
    • Create source and note entities
    • Add "new-development" tag
  4. Skip topics tagged "paused" or with status "archived"

Rules

  • Minimum 3 sources before generating a report
  • Always include source credibility in reports
  • Flag when multiple sources contradict each other
  • Never present a single source's claim as established fact

Read the full file on GitHub · 67 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. 5d ago First seen · 67 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 159ca9dc1c0c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

research-methodology is a skill published in the GitHub repository NimbleBrainInc/upjack (9 stars, last pushed 4mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 431 tokens. 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 2026-08-31.