research-trigger

Type: ANALYSIS-ONLY DAIC Modes: DISCUSS, ALIGN, IMPLEMENT, CHECK (all modes) Priority: High

Trigger Reference

This skill activates on:

• Keywords: "research", "find information", "look up", "investigate", "best practices", "how do I", "what are the options", "search for", "find examples", "discover", "explore"
• Intent Patterns: (research|investigate|find|lookup).?, how.(do I|implement|use|approach), what.(options|alternatives|ways to), best practices.?, (search|find|discover).*?(information|examples|docs)

From: skill-rules.json - research-trigger configuration

Purpose

Automatically trigger the /research slash command when users ask questions requiring deep research, best practices lookup, or multi-source information gathering using natural language. Eliminates the need to remember the /research syntax.

Core Behavior

In any DAIC mode:

1. Question Detection

- Detect when user asks research-oriented questions - Examples: "How do I implement JWT auth?", "What are best practices for caching?" - Automatically invoke /research with the question

1. Intent Classification

- Identify research intent patterns: - How-to questions ("How do I...") - Comparison questions ("What are the options for...") - Best practices queries ("Best practices for...") - Investigation requests ("Research X", "Investigate Y")

1. Research Invocation

- Call /research command with extracted question - Pass through to parallel research agents - Return comprehensive research findings with citations

Natural Language Examples

Triggers this skill:

• ✓ "Research best practices for error handling"
• ✓ "How do I implement OAuth2?"
• ✓ "What are the options for state management?"
• ✓ "Find information about GraphQL subscriptions"
• ✓ "Investigate performance optimization techniques"
• ✓ "Look up JWT token refresh patterns"
• ✓ "Search for examples of Sentry integration"
• ✓ "Discover alternatives to Express middleware"
• ✓ "What are best practices for API versioning?"

Does NOT trigger:

• ✗ "What is the current mode?" (DAIC mode question, not research)
• ✗ "What's in progress?" (project status, not research)
• ✗ "What files changed?" (git status, not research)

Safety Guardrails

ANALYSIS-ONLY RULES:

• ✓ NEVER call write tools (Edit, Write, MultiEdit)
• ✓ Only invokes /research command which is read-only
• ✓ Safe to run in any DAIC mode
• ✓ Provides research findings and recommendations only

Invocation Rules:

• Only invoke /research when clear research intent detected
• Extract the full question from user's message
• Handle "how", "what", "why" questions appropriately
• Distinguish research questions from status/info queries

Implementation Notes

This skill acts as a natural language wrapper around /research. The actual research logic lives in .claude/commands/research.md, which:

• Classifies query type (breadth-first vs depth-first)
• Launches parallel research subagents
• Synthesizes findings with automatic citations
• Returns comprehensive research report

This skill simply detects the intent and routes to that command.