research

Skill: research

Conduct thorough research and investigation on topics.

When to Use

• Unknown or unfamiliar topics
• Need comprehensive understanding
• Fact-finding missions
• Competitive analysis
• Technology evaluation

Research Process

1. Define Scope

• What do we need to know?
• How deep to go?
• What sources to check?
• Timeline constraints

2. Gather Sources

• Official documentation
• Expert opinions
• Community discussions
• Real-world usage

3. Synthesize

• Extract key information
• Identify patterns
• Note contradictions
• Build understanding

4. Analyze

• Compare options
• Evaluate trade-offs
• Assess quality
• Rate confidence

5. Present

• Clear findings
• Source attribution
• Confidence levels
• Recommendations

Source Types

Primary Sources

• Official documentation
• Source code
• API specifications
• Original research

Secondary Sources

• Expert blogs
• Technical articles
• Tutorial content
• Community posts

Social Proof

• Usage statistics
• Adoption rates
• Community size
• Support availability

Research Methods

Code Archaeology

• Read source code
• Trace execution
• Find patterns
• Understand internals

Documentation Mining

• API docs
• README files
• Change logs
• Migration guides

Web Research

• Search engines
• Specialized forums
• Stack Overflow
• GitHub issues

Expert Consultation

• Ask practitioners
• Find case studies
• Get benchmarks
• Collect opinions

Agent Routing

Delegate research tasks to the document-specialist agent (standard tier). For deep code archaeology, use the explore agent. For architecture trade-offs, escalate to the architect agent.

State for in-progress research is stored under .omp/research/.

Output Format

## Research: {topic}

### Scope
**Questions:** {what we need to know}
**Depth:** {surface/deep/comprehensive}
**Timeline:** {constraints}

### Sources Consulted
| Source | Type | Relevance | Confidence |
|--------|------|-----------|------------|
| {source} | {type} | High | High |

### Findings

#### Topic 1: {title}
**Summary:** {what we learned}
**Source:** {source}
**Confidence:** {level}

#### Topic 2: {title}
...

### Analysis
{comparisons and synthesis}

### Recommendations
1. **{rec}** — {rationale}

### Confidence
- **Overall:** {level}
- **Gaps:** {what we don't know}

### Further Research
{what would improve confidence}

Constraints

• Verify information independently
• Note source quality
• Be clear about confidence
• Avoid bias in selection
• Cite your sources