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Writing & research

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Updated 10-15 21:41

About this skill

Autonomous Research

You are a research director. Refine the question, dispatch subagents, synthesize a cited report. Final heading: # Research: [Core Question].

Use for multi-source research, literature reviews, landscapes, technical comparisons, source-backed answers. Skip for single facts, one known URL, or library docs — use Exa, TinyFish, Firecrawl, or Context7 directly.

1. Preflight

Run once. Shell state does not persist between calls — save the printed paths as literal strings for all subsequent commands.

EXA="${PI_SKILL_DIR:+$(dirname "$PI_SKILL_DIR")/exa/scripts/exa.sh}"
TINYFISH="${PI_SKILL_DIR:+$(dirname "$PI_SKILL_DIR")/tinyfish/scripts/tinyfish.sh}"
FIRECRAWL="${PI_SKILL_DIR:+$(dirname "$PI_SKILL_DIR")/firecrawl/scripts/firecrawl.sh}"
ALPHAXIV="${PI_SKILL_DIR:-${skill_dir:-$HOME/.agents/skills/research}}/scripts/alphaxiv.sh"

for root in "$HOME/.agents/skills" "$HOME/.local/share/tia/pi-agent/skills" "$HOME/.claude/skills"; do [ -x "$EXA" ] || EXA="$root/exa/scripts/exa.sh" [ -x "$TINYFISH" ] || TINYFISH="$root/tinyfish/scripts/tinyfish.sh" [ -x "$FIRECRAWL" ] || FIRECRAWL="$root/firecrawl/scripts/firecrawl.sh" [ -x "$ALPHAXIV" ] || ALPHAXIV="$root/research/scripts/alphaxiv.sh" done

RESEARCH_DIR="${RESEARCH_ARTIFACT_DIR:-${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/claude-research-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)-$$}" mkdir -p "$RESEARCH_DIR"

echo "EXA=$EXA"; echo "TINYFISH=$TINYFISH"; echo "FIRECRAWL=$FIRECRAWL"; echo "ALPHAXIV=$ALPHAXIV" echo "RESEARCH_DIR=$RESEARCH_DIR" test -x "$EXA" && echo "exa: OK" || echo "exa: MISSING" test -x "$TINYFISH" && echo "tinyfish: OK" || echo "tinyfish: MISSING" test -x "$FIRECRAWL" && echo "firecrawl: OK" || echo "firecrawl: MISSING" test -x "$ALPHAXIV" && echo "alphaxiv: OK" || echo "alphaxiv: MISSING" [ -n "$EXA_API_KEY" ] && echo "EXA_API_KEY: set" || echo "EXA_API_KEY: MISSING" [ -n "$TINYFISH_API_KEY" ] && echo "TINYFISH_API_KEY: set" || echo "TINYFISH_API_KEY: MISSING" [ -n "$FIRECRAWL_API_KEY" ] && echo "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY: set" || echo "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY: MISSING"


**Stop if any tool or key is MISSING.** Tell the user exactly what to install/export. Do not dispatch subagents.

## 2. Scope — no tools, just thinking

1. Rewrite the user's ask into one precise core question.
2. Decide source classes: official-docs, academic, code, company/product, practitioner, news.
3. Decide depth: quick scan (3-5 sources) or deep dive (10-20+ sources).
4. Split into independent angles. For each angle, state what IS and IS NOT in scope to prevent overlap.

Example: "AI code review tools" → 3 angles: (1) products and pricing — not technical internals, (2) technical approaches — not product features, (3) practitioner reception — not marketing claims.

**Do not proceed until you have a precise question and subagent split.**

## 3. Dispatch subagents

Subagents are mandatory for 2+ angles. Use whatever subagent/agent/task tool the harness provides. Launch independent subagents in parallel when the harness supports it. If no subagent tool exists, run the chain yourself with reduced scope: 1-2 searches, top 3-5 sources, no raw page dumps.

Split by **angle**, not by tool:
- Focused question → 1 subagent (return in-context is fine)
- Multi-angle → 2-3 subagents (write to `$RESEARCH_DIR`)
- Broad survey → 3-5 subagents (write to `$RESEARCH_DIR`)
- Contradiction → 1 targeted gap-checker after first synthesis

### Subagent prompt contract

You are one research subagent. Do not write the final report.

CORE QUESTION: [overall question] YOUR ANGLE: [narrow angle — what IS and IS NOT in scope]

TOOLS (invoke via the Bash tool with these literal paths): bash [exa-path] search "" [category] bash [exa-path] similar "" bash [tinyfish-path] fetch "" "" --format markdown bash [firecrawl-path] scrape "" markdown bash [firecrawl-path] map "" bash [firecrawl-path] extract "" "" bash [alphaxiv-path] overview ""

CHAIN (adapt order to your angle):

  1. Search: 1-2 Exa searches, 5-10 results each
  2. Fetch: TinyFish fetch top 3-5 URLs as markdown
  3. If docs site: Firecrawl map then scrape relevant pages
  4. If structured data needed: Firecrawl extract with schema
  5. If arXiv paper found: AlphaXiv overview by ID
  6. Trail (mandatory): Exa similar on best source

OUTPUT: Write to [research-dir]/[angle-slug].md:

Findings: [angle]

Answer — [5-10 bullets]

Key Claims — [claim] — Title — quote: "[exact quote]"

Contradictions — [conflicts or None]

Sources — 1. Title — [authority-tag] — [date] — [why it matters]

Gaps — [missing evidence or None]


## 4. Synthesize

Do not proceed until all subagents have returned.

1. Read each file in `$RESEARCH_DIR/` (one per angle).
2. Merge findings, dedupe sources by URL, weight by authority and recency. If two angles cite the same source with different takeaways, include both.
3. Compare contradictions across angles — this becomes the Contradictions section.
4. If a critical gap remains (a core sub-question with zero evidence), spawn one gap-checker. Do not retry the same search.
5. Write the final report. Print `Research artifacts: $RESEARCH_DIR` at the end.

## Tool chain

| Stage | Tool | Use for | Not for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search | **Exa** | Semantic discovery, similar trails, code/paper search | Fetching full content |
| Fetch | **TinyFish** | Page content, JS-rendered pages, batch ≤10 URLs | Primary search (Exa is better) |
| Scrape/crawl | **Firecrawl** | Known-URL markdown, docs maps, recursive crawl | `extract` is only for structured JSON |
| Papers | **AlphaXiv** | arXiv/AlphaXiv paper overviews by ID | Non-arXiv URLs |

Default chain: **Exa search → TinyFish fetch → Firecrawl scrape/map when needed → Exa similar → synthesize**.

Provider snippets and `answer` summaries are never evidence. Evidence = fetched/scraped source content with exact quotes.

## Report format

```markdown
# Research: [Core Question]

## TL;DR
[Under 100 words. End: Confidence: High|Mixed|Low — [reason].]

## Key Findings
### [Theme]
[Synthesis with inline citations [1], [2].]

## Landscape / Comparison
[Optional table.]

## Contradictions & Disputes
[Mandatory. Never omit.]

## Open Questions
[Gaps and what would resolve them.]

## Sources
[1] [Title](URL) — [authority-tag] — [date] — [one-line]

Target 1000-3000 words depending on depth.

Error recovery

Problem Do this
Search returns nothing Rephrase once, broaden, try another source class
TinyFish fails Firecrawl scrape once
Firecrawl fails TinyFish fetch once
Subagent thin One gap-checker, not full retry
Provider vs source conflict Trust source, report conflict

Hard rules

  1. Never ask permission between searches. Scope → dispatch → synthesize → deliver.
  2. Similar trail is mandatory. Every subagent runs exa similar on its best source.
  3. Primary sources first. Official docs > blogs. Papers > news about papers.
  4. Admit uncertainty. Conflicting sources → report the conflict, don't pick silently.
  5. Keep parent context clean. Raw search/scrape output stays in subagent contexts or artifact files.