Rules
- Honor user constraints, including no-write/chat-only requests. Discover available retrieval capabilities; do not assume tool names.
- Prefer primary sources and read answer-critical content. Search snippets and generated summaries are discovery aids, not sufficient evidence.
- For dependency claims, establish installed/targeted versions and runtime/integration boundaries. Prefer version-matched source over conflicting live documentation.
- For signatures, hashing, serialization, canonicalization, authentication, or wire protocols, require an independent official implementation, test vector, or interoperability check; self-consistent round trips are insufficient.
- Cite URLs, separate observation from inference, and state uncertainty. Never store secrets, credentials, private sessions, or sensitive source content.
Resources
Read before the corresponding work:
| Work | Resource |
|---|---|
| Substantial research notes or decision synthesis | ADR conventions: shared document paths and decision authority |
| Complex, filtered, multi-angle, or current discovery | Web search |
| Multiple sources, repositories, PDFs, or truncated content | Content retrieval |
| Video/audio or visual moments | Media |
Use browser automation for logins, forms, or dynamic interaction; local parsers/screenshots for local documents.
Workflow
- Frame. Small direct lookups need no artifact. For substantial, conflicting, resumable, implementation-critical, or high-risk research, read ADR conventions and reuse the active work document or create
adrs/work/<research-slug>.md. Record question, scope, constraints, known context, and search angles. No-write → retain evidence in the response. - Establish context. Inspect manifests, lockfiles, configuration, or exact source when applicable. Identify the behavior, compatibility, failure, and integration questions that affect the answer.
- Discover. Inspect user-supplied sources first; otherwise use two to four distinct angles, such as official docs, source/release history, and corroborating implementations. Retrieve selected answer-critical sources.
- Inspect. Read actual docs/source/tests or media. Resolve truncation through full content or an alternate retrieval path. In substantial research, retain useful findings, citations, version/date scope, material conflicts, rejected evidence, open questions, and next action in the same work document.
- Resolve. Assess authority, directness, version match, and failure behavior. Follow up narrowly on material gaps; stop when supported, remaining gaps are non-material, or further useful evidence is unlikely.
- Synthesize. Reread existing work notes before final responses, handoffs, or compaction. State findings, implications, source conflicts, and limits. Link decision-relevant evidence to the owning ADR; draft only actual significant choices and never treat research as acceptance. Reusable technology knowledge belongs in the wiki.
Late results warrant a follow-up only if they materially change the conclusion or the user asks.