Agent Skills: Researching

Researching

Produce well-sourced research artifacts with verified citations.

When to Use

• Complex research requiring multiple sub-queries
• Need documented research that persists beyond conversation
• Topic requires source verification and confidence calibration
• High-stakes decisions that need cited evidence

Don't use for: Quick lookups. Just search directly.

Artifact Requirements

• Minimum 3 independent evidence bundles per research topic
• Each bundle must cite primary sources with URLs
• Source diversity required: official docs, peer-reviewed, reputable secondary
• Academic citations must be validated with bibval

Quality Rubric

| Criterion | Requirement | |-----------|-------------| | Citations | Every claim has inline citation with URL | | Coverage | Key perspectives included (not just first result) | | Recency | Sources current (≤2 years for APIs/tech, flexible for fundamentals) | | Confidence | Calibrated honestly; uncertainties stated explicitly | | Conflicts | Disagreements between sources noted, not hidden |

Source Credibility Hierarchy

Weight findings by source authority:

1. Official documentation - canonical, highest weight
2. Peer-reviewed papers - validated, high weight
3. Reputable blogs/talks - expert authors, medium weight
4. Stack Overflow (accepted) - community validated, medium weight
5. Forums/unverified - low weight, note uncertainty

Output Schema

{
  "topic": "string",
  "status": "COMPLETE | PARTIAL",
  "confidence": "HIGH | MEDIUM | LOW",
  "findings": [
    {
      "subtopic": "string",
      "content": "string with inline citations",
      "sources": ["url1", "url2"]
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "url": "string",
      "title": "string",
      "authority": "official | peer-reviewed | blog | forum"
    }
  ],
  "gaps": ["string"]
}

Constraints

• Prefer primary sources over secondary
• Cross-reference claims across multiple sources
• Flag single-source claims as lower confidence
• Run bibval on academic citations before including

Recording Findings

Post research artifacts to jwz for persistence and discovery:

jwz post "research:<topic>" --role alice \
  -m "[alice] SYNTHESIS: <topic>
Status: COMPLETE | PARTIAL
Confidence: HIGH | MEDIUM | LOW
Findings:
- <finding 1>
- <finding 2>
Sources: <url1>, <url2>"

Discovery

jwz search "SYNTHESIS:"
jwz search "FINDING:"
jwz read "research:<topic>"