Research Create Skill

Design a research plan that decomposes a topic into parallel investigation tasks.

Process

1. Invoke an Explore subagent using the Task tool with subagent_type=Explore to understand the current codebase context relevant to the research topic. Capture the agentId from the Task result.

2. Design the research plan. Break the topic into independent questions that can be investigated in parallel. For each question, define:

   • The question itself (what we need to find out)
   • The where/what/how/why framework:
     • Where: Which codebases, files, docs, or external sources to investigate
     • What: What specific information to extract
     • How: How the system/algorithm/feature works
     • Why: Why it was designed this way, what tradeoffs were made
   • The output file name for findings
   • Which sources to consult (local code, external repos, docs, web)

3. Find the next research number by checking both research/ and research/archive/ for the highest NNNN-* prefix. Unnumbered directories are legacy and should be ignored when determining the next number.

4. Create the research directory: research/NNNN-topic-name/

5. Write research-plan.md with this format:

   # Research: Topic Name
   
   ## Status: PLANNED
   
   ---
   
   ## Goal
   
   [What we're trying to learn and why]
   
   ## Context
   
   [Current state, what prompted this research, relevant background]
   
   ## Questions
   
   ### Q1: [Question title]
   
   **Where:** [Sources to investigate]
   **What:** [Specific information needed]
   **How:** [Methodology — read code, run experiments, compare implementations]
   **Why:** [Why this matters for our goals]
   
   **Output file:** `q1-descriptive-name.md`
   
   ---
   
   ### Q2: [Question title]
   
   **Where:** [Sources to investigate]
   **What:** [Specific information needed]
   **How:** [Methodology]
   **Why:** [Why this matters]
   
   **Output file:** `q2-descriptive-name.md`
   
   ---
   
   [Continue for each question]
   
   ## Sources
   
   | Source | Location | Used by |
   |--------|----------|---------|
   | [Source name] | [Path or URL] | Q1, Q2 |
   
   ## Expected Outputs
   
   | File | Question | Status |
   |------|----------|--------|
   | `q1-descriptive-name.md` | Q1: Title | Pending |
   | `q2-descriptive-name.md` | Q2: Title | Pending |
   | `synthesis.md` | Combined findings | Pending |
   

6. Write .research-state.json with initial state:

   {
     "status": "planned",
     "created_at": "2026-01-28T10:30:00Z",
     "updated_at": "2026-01-28T10:30:00Z",
     "planning_agent_id": "abc-123-def",
     "agent_ids": [],
     "synthesis_agent_id": null,
     "last_session_notes": null
   }
   

   • status: "planned" — research plan created but agents not yet spawned
   • planning_agent_id: agentId from the Explore subagent
   • agent_ids: empty array, populated when /research:resume spawns agents
   • synthesis_agent_id: null until synthesis is performed

7. Do not spawn research agents yet. The plan should be reviewed first. Agents are spawned by /research:resume.

8. Present the plan to the user:

   **Research plan created:** `research/NNNN-topic-name/`
   **Created:** YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM UTC
   **Questions:** N questions defined
   **Planning agent:** `{agentId}` (resume for additional context)
   
   **Questions:**
   - Q1: [Title] -> `q1-output-file.md`
   - Q2: [Title] -> `q2-output-file.md`
   - Q3: [Title] -> `q3-output-file.md`
   
   Review the research plan, then run `/research:resume` to spawn parallel investigation agents.
   
   *Research summary: Brief description of what we're investigating*
   

Findings File Template

Each subagent should produce findings following this structure:

# Q1: [Question Title]

## Summary

[2-3 sentence answer to the question]

## Where

[Sources consulted — files read, repos explored, docs referenced]

## What

[Detailed findings — the factual information discovered]

## How

[How the system/algorithm/feature works, with code references and examples]

## Why

[Why it was designed this way, tradeoffs, constraints, design rationale]

## Key Takeaways

- [Bullet point takeaway 1]
- [Bullet point takeaway 2]
- [Bullet point takeaway 3]

## Open Questions

- [Any follow-up questions that emerged during investigation]

Hierarchical Research

If a research plan needs deeper investigation on a subtopic:

• Create a subdirectory: research/NNNN-topic-name/subtopic-name/
• The subdirectory gets its own research-plan.md and .research-state.json
• The parent's synthesis should reference the child research