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).
• /grill parked 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