---
name: research-report
description: >
  Produce structured research reports with findings, prior art analysis, recommendations,
  and source citations. Used by the researcher agent and during Phase 2. Invoked when
  compiling research findings into deliverable documents.
---

# Research Report Skill

Produce a structured, actionable research document. The audience is both the human user and downstream agents (architect, developers) who will build from this research.

## Template

```markdown
## Research Report: [Topic]
### Date: [date]
### Requested By: [user or phase reference]
### Status: Draft | Final

---

### 1. Problem Context
[Why this research was requested. Link to the problem statement if applicable.
1-2 paragraphs maximum.]

### 2. Key Findings

#### [Finding 1 Title]
[What was discovered. Be specific — include versions, dates, benchmarks.]
- **Source:** [URL or reference]
- **Confidence:** High | Medium | Low
- **Relevance:** [How this affects our project]

#### [Finding 2 Title]
...

### 3. Prior Art

| Solution | Type | License | Last Updated | Solves | Gaps | Link |
|----------|------|---------|-------------|--------|------|------|
| [name]   | OSS/Commercial | [license] | [date] | [what it covers] | [what it doesn't] | [URL] |

#### Recommendation
[Use existing solution X / Extend solution Y / Build from scratch because Z]

### 4. Tool & Technology Evaluation

| Tool | Purpose | Pros | Cons | License | Self-Hostable | Recommendation |
|------|---------|------|------|---------|--------------|----------------|
| ...  | ...     | ...  | ...  | ...     | Yes/No       | Use / Skip / Evaluate Further |

### 5. Best Practices Identified
1. [Practice with source]
2. [Practice with source]

### 6. Risks & Limitations
- [Risk and its potential impact]
- [Limitation of the researched approach]

### 7. Prototype Recommendations
[What should be prototyped to validate assumptions before committing to a design]
- **Prototype 1:** [What to build, what it tests, estimated effort]
- **Prototype 2:** ...

### 8. Open Questions
- [Question that couldn't be answered by research alone]
- [Question that needs user input]

### 9. Sources
1. [Title — URL — accessed date]
2. ...
```

## Quality Checklist

Before finalizing any research report:

- [ ] Every finding has a cited source
- [ ] Confidence levels are honest (don't mark Medium as High)
- [ ] Prior art table is complete — did you search GitHub, Product Hunt, HN, and domain-specific sources?
- [ ] Tool evaluations include license and self-hosting status (per project principles)
- [ ] Open questions are genuinely open, not just things you didn't bother to look up
- [ ] The recommendation section is actionable — a reader should know what to do next
- [ ] Dates on all sources — research ages fast

## Rules

- Prefer primary sources (official docs, whitepapers, repos) over secondary (blog posts, aggregators)
- If two sources conflict, note both and flag the contradiction
- Never recommend a tool without verifying it's actively maintained (check last commit date, issue activity)
- Always check licenses — GPL dependencies can affect our open-source strategy
- If a prototype would answer a question faster than more research, say so and stop researching
- Research reports are reference material — they should be useful months from now, not just today