research
Gather external knowledge the spec needs and distill it into §R — the durable research log — so build grounds in facts instead of hallucinating library behavior. Each finding cites a source; unsourced claims are flagged, never written as fact. Triggers when a spec decision hinges on a library/API/best practice the agent is unsure of, when the user says "research this", "what's the best lib for…", "check current best practice", or invokes /ck:research. Defers the §R write to the spec skill.
How do I install this agent skill?
npx skills add https://github.com/juliusbrussee/cavekit --skill researchIs this agent skill safe to install?
- Gen Agent Trust Hubpass
This skill is designed for gathering and documenting external research. It emphasizes source citation and factual accuracy while including safety considerations like using sub-agents to isolate external web content from the primary conversation context.
- Socketpass
No alerts
- Snykwarn
Risk: MEDIUM · 1 issue
What does this agent skill do?
research — external knowledge → §R
Every finding cites a source. No source → flag it ?, never write a guess as fact.
"Process without library context gives you well-organized hallucinations." Build invents a plausible-but-wrong API & §B fills with avoidable bugs. Research is the external oracle: pull the real fact once, log it caveman, never re-derive.
WHEN TO RESEARCH
- A §C/§I/§V decision hinges on a lib, API, version, or pattern you are unsure of.
- You are about to assume how an external dependency behaves.
- The idea touches a domain with real prior art (auth, payments, crypto, rate-limit).
/grillparked a?that the outside world must answer.
Skip when the build touches only code you already wrote. Research scales to the unknown, ⊥ to habit.
FOUR STEPS
1. SCOPE
Turn the unknown into 1-3 concrete questions. Vague "research auth" → "JWT lib for Node ESM, maintained?" + "refresh-token rotation: current best practice?". A scoped question gets a citable answer; a vague one gets an essay.
2. GATHER
Use web search / docs tools. Prefer primary sources: official docs, the repo, the RFC, the paper. Two independent sources beat one confident blog. For a big sweep, spawn a sub-agent so the raw pages never touch this context — it returns only the distilled finding + source.
3. DISTILL
Crush each answer to one caveman line + its source. Drop the prose. The §R row is the memory; the tab you read is not.
R3|refresh token|rotate on use, revoke family on reuse-detect|datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6819#section-5.2.2.3
4. HAND OFF
Emit the §R rows & hand to the spec skill to append. If a finding changes a constraint or interface, note the §C/§I edit for spec too. Research proposes; spec writes.
SOURCE DISCIPLINE
- Cite a URL, repo, RFC, or paper per row. Verbatim identifiers/versions.
- Could not verify → write the row but flag
?in the finding & say so. An unverified claim labeled honestly is fine; one disguised as fact is a future §B. - Conflicting sources → log both, let the user pick. ⊥ silently average them.
WHEN TO STOP
Done when every scoped question has a sourced §R row (or an honest ?), and no
build decision still rests on an unchecked assumption. ⊥ research past the
questions you scoped — that is just burning the attention budget.
BOUNDARIES
- ⊥ write SPEC.md. Hand §R rows to spec.
- ⊥ write a finding as fact without a source.
- ⊥ dump raw pages into context or §R. Distill or it does not land.
- ⊥ research what you can read in the repo. Local truth > web guess.
How can the creator link this skill?
Add the canonical catalog link to the repository README so users can inspect current installs and available audits. The publishing guide covers the complete discovery path.
<a href="https://skillzs.dev/skills/juliusbrussee/cavekit/research">View research on skillZs</a>