Research — gather sources and write provisional findings

This skill is pack guidance. The platform /open-knowledge skill (read/write/preview/linking/grounding rules) still governs every markdown operation — this layers the procedure on top.

Conduct evidence-driven research on a topic and produce a provisional research article under research/. Provisional, not canonical: research articles capture findings, trade-offs, and open questions at a point in time. They are promoted to canonical articles via the /consolidate-notes skill only when decisions solidify.

The content directory is the resolved content.dir — read it with config({ key: 'content.dir' }) if you don't already know it. Paths below are relative to it.

Three paths

• Path A — Research article (DEFAULT): A persistent provisional article with status: draft and an inline sources: frontmatter list pointing at raw sources captured via the ingest procedure. This is the default unless the user explicitly opts out.
• Path B — Direct answer: Findings delivered in conversation only. Requires explicit user request (e.g., "just tell me", "no doc needed", "quick answer").
• Path C — Update existing research: Surgical additions/corrections to an existing research article. Triggered when the user references an existing research doc or says "update/refresh/extend."

Path A is the default because provisional articles compound over time; spoken answers do not.

Legacy reads: Existing articles may use status: provisional and string paths under sources:. Treat those as draft research and source resources. Do not mass-rewrite them; new writes use the OKF shapes below.

Autonomy mode