⚠️ MANDATORY TRIGGER

When user says “research” (in any form), ALWAYS invoke this skill.

“Research” alone = Standard mode. No exceptions.

Customization

Before executing, check for user customizations at: ~/.claude/PAI/USER/SKILLCUSTOMIZATIONS/Research/

If this directory exists, load and apply any PREFERENCES.md, configurations, or resources found there. These override default behavior. If the directory does not exist, proceed with skill defaults.

🚨 MANDATORY: Voice Notification (REQUIRED BEFORE ANY ACTION)

You MUST send this notification BEFORE doing anything else when this skill is invoked.

1. Send voice notification:

   curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8888/notify \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"message": "Running the WORKFLOWNAME workflow in the Research skill to ACTION"}' \
     > /dev/null 2>&1 &
   

2. Output text notification:

   Running the **WorkflowName** workflow in the **Research** skill to ACTION...
   

This is not optional. Execute this curl command immediately upon skill invocation.

Research Skill

Comprehensive research, analysis, and content extraction system.

MANDATORY: URL Verification

READ: UrlVerificationProtocol.md – Every URL must be verified before delivery.

Research agents hallucinate URLs. A single broken link is a catastrophic failure.

Workflow Routing

Route to the appropriate workflow based on the request.

CRITICAL: For due diligence, company/person background checks, or vetting -> INVOKE OSINT SKILL INSTEAD

Research Modes (Primary Workflows)

• Quick/minor research (1 Perplexity, 1 query) -> Workflows/QuickResearch.md
• Standard research – DEFAULT (3 agents: Perplexity + Claude + Gemini) -> Workflows/StandardResearch.md
• Extensive research (4 types x 3 threads = 12 agents) -> Workflows/ExtensiveResearch.md
• Deep investigation / iterative research (progressive deepening, loop-compatible) -> Workflows/DeepInvestigation.md

Deep Content Analysis

• Extract alpha / deep analysis / highest-alpha insights -> Workflows/ExtractAlpha.md

Content Retrieval

• Difficulty accessing content (CAPTCHA, bot detection, blocking) -> Workflows/Retrieve.md
• YouTube URL extraction (use fabric -y URL immediately) -> Workflows/YoutubeExtraction.md
• Web scraping -> Workflows/WebScraping.md

Specific Research Types

• Claude WebSearch only (free, no API keys) -> Workflows/ClaudeResearch.md
• Perplexity API research (use Quick for single-agent) -> Workflows/QuickResearch.md
• Interview preparation (Tyler Cowen style) -> Workflows/InterviewResearch.md
• AI trends analysis -> Workflows/AnalyzeAiTrends.md

Fabric Pattern Processing

• Use Fabric patterns (242+ specialized prompts) -> Workflows/Fabric.md

Content Enhancement

• Enhance/improve content -> Workflows/Enhance.md
• Extract knowledge from content -> Workflows/ExtractKnowledge.md

Quick Reference

READ: QuickReference.md for detailed examples and mode comparison.

Integration

Feeds Into

• blogging – Research for blog posts
• newsletter – Research for newsletters
• xpost – Create posts from research

Uses

• be-creative – deep thinking for extract alpha
• OSINT – MANDATORY for company/people comprehensive research
• BrightData MCP – CAPTCHA solving, advanced scraping
• Apify MCP – RAG browser, specialized site scrapers

Deep Investigation Mode

Progressive iterative research that builds a persistent knowledge vault. Works in both single-run (one cycle) and loop mode (Algorithm-driven iterations).

Concept: Broad landscape → discover entities → score importance/effort → deep-dive one at a time → loop until coverage complete.

Domain template packs customize the investigation for specific domains:

• Templates/MarketResearch.md — Companies, Products, People, Technologies, Trends, Investors
• Templates/ThreatLandscape.md — Threat Actors, Campaigns, TTPs, Vulnerabilities, Tools, Defenders
• No template? The workflow creates entity categories dynamically from the landscape research.

Example invocation:

"Do a deep investigation of the AI agent market"
→ Loads MarketResearch.md template
→ Iteration 1: Broad landscape + first entity deep-dive
→ Loop mode: Each iteration deep-dives the next highest-priority entity
→ Exit: When all CRITICAL/HIGH entities researched + all categories covered

Artifacts persist at ~/.claude/MEMORY/RESEARCH/{date}_{topic}/ — the vault survives across sessions.

See Workflows/DeepInvestigation.md for full workflow details.

File Organization

Working files (temporary work artifacts): ~/.claude/MEMORY/WORK/{current_work}/

• Read ~/.claude/MEMORY/STATE/current-work.json to get the work_dir value
• All iterative work artifacts go in the current work item directory
• This ties research artifacts to the work item for learning and context

History (permanent): ~/.claude/History/research/YYYY-MM/YYYY-MM-DD_[topic]/