RPI Research

Goal

Produce a dated, human-readable primary research artifact that helps the end user understand the result, challenge the evidence, suggest changes, and make any required decision without planning, implementing, or reviewing. Lead with the summary, material discoveries, findings, and alternatives; keep supporting context with the finding that needs it.

Preserve the canonical evidence, decision state, and planning-readiness record beneath that reader-first synthesis. Each executed research cycle completes wider, deeper, and contrarian waves in that order. The artifact, not the chat response, is the durable source of truth.

Use templates/research.md as the primary-artifact skeleton. Read references/research.md for detailed research-posture selection, the three-wave cycle, extension registry, optional helpers, participation protocol, evidence contract, and response guidance. Follow the shared conventions in copilot-tracking.instructions.md.

Derive {{task_slug}} from the primary target with lower-kebab-case and use the current date in {{YYYY-MM-DD}}. The default artifact path is .copilot-tracking/research/{{YYYY-MM-DD}}/{{task_slug}}-research.md. A caller-provided trusted sandbox or evidence root may mirror research/{{YYYY-MM-DD}}/{{task_slug}}-research.md; record the resolved root before writing.

Flow