mindforge-research-phase

Note: This is a standalone research command. For most workflows, use /mindforge-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, WebFetch 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. Initialize Context

INIT=$(node ".agent/bin/mindforge-tools.cjs" init phase-op "$ARGUMENTS")
if [[ "$INIT" == @file:* ]]; then INIT=$(cat "${INIT#@file:}"); fi

Extract from init JSON: phase_dir, phase_number, phase_name, phase_found, commit_docs, has_research, state_path, requirements_path, context_path, research_path.

Resolve researcher model:

RESEARCHER_MODEL=$(node ".agent/bin/mindforge-tools.cjs" resolve-model mindforge-phase-researcher --raw)

1. Validate Phase

PHASE_INFO=$(node ".agent/bin/mindforge-tools.cjs" roadmap get-phase "${phase_number}")

If found is false: Error and exit. If found is true: Extract phase_number, phase_name, goal from JSON.

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.

If doesn't exist: Continue.

3. Gather Phase Context

Use paths from INIT (do not inline file contents in orchestrator context):

• requirements_path
• context_path
• state_path