Research Spike

Time-boxed technical investigation with structured, citation-backed output.

Use for a spike before adopting unfamiliar technology, an architecture decision record, a comparison of tools or libraries, a feasibility study, a migration or upgrade assessment, or a survey of best practice in a domain.

Modes

| Mode | Output emphasizes | | --- | --- | | Technical spike | Practical findings, code examples, implementation recommendations | | Competitive research | Feature matrices, trade-off analysis, selection criteria | | Feasibility analysis | Constraints, risks, effort factors, go/no-go recommendation |

Upfront Questions

Use AskUserQuestion to settle three things before researching anything:

Mode — spike, competitive, or feasibility.
Depth — quick (high-level overview), standard (actionable depth), or deep dive (comprehensive, production-ready guidance).
Scope — technologies to include or exclude, constraints (budget, team expertise, existing stack), and the decision factors that define success.

Method

Scope — confirm the question and its boundaries, the key terms, and the known constraints.
Plan — choose sources (web, documentation, the codebase), split into sub-questions, and prioritize by the user's decision factors.
Gather — search and read; explore the codebase where relevant. Record every source as you go, not afterwards.
Synthesize — organize findings by theme, identify patterns and trade-offs, derive recommendations from the evidence, and name the gaps.
Write — produce the report, then check it against the quality gates.

Anti-Hallucination

State only what a source explicitly confirms.
Hedge inferences: "suggests", "likely", "based on X, we can infer".
Keep opinion visibly distinct from fact.
Label anything you cannot verify as "unverified" or "needs confirmation".
When comparing options, include only documented features.

Output

Write to research/[topic-slug]/spike-report.md, progressively as you work rather than in one pass at the end. Read references/report-template.md for the section template and the quality gates to verify before finishing. Close by telling the user where the file is and what it concluded.