/research

Deep research creating persistent documentation for future reference. Uses Ultrathink for comprehensive analysis.

Usage

/research "authentication patterns for multi-tenant SaaS" /research "real-time collaboration architectures" /research "Jira vs Linear competitive analysis" /research "WebSocket vs SSE trade-offs"

Output Locations

ideas/ ├── [project]/notes/research/ # Project-specific ├── shared/docs/research/ # Cross-project └── resources/research/ # General reference

Location rules:

• Project-specific: ideas/{project}/notes/research/

• Cross-project: shared/docs/research/

• General reference: resources/research/

Process

1. Check Existing Research

grep -r "authentication" ideas/*/notes/research/ grep -r "authentication" shared/docs/research/

If found, ask: "Research exists. Update, view, or create new?"

2. Deep Research Phase

Invoke research-specialist agent:

Research scope:

• Official documentation (via Context7)

• Technical blogs and tutorials

• Stack Overflow (high-vote answers)

• GitHub discussions and issues

• Community forums

• Existing solutions/products

Volume: Read 20-30+ sources, distill to 3-5 pages

3. Create Research Document

Naming: lowercase kebab-case (e.g., auth-patterns-saas.md )

Structure:

created: YYYY-MM-DD updated: YYYY-MM-DD sources: NUMBER related:

• path/to/related/file.md tags: ["primary-tag", "secondary-tag"]

Research: [Topic]

Executive Summary

[2-3 paragraphs of key findings]

Detailed Findings

[Subtopic 1]

[Analysis]

[Subtopic 2]

[Analysis]

Recommendations

[What to do based on research]

Must-Read Resources

1. [Title] - [url]
   • Why: [Reason]
   • Key point: [Takeaway]

Additional Resources

• [Title] - [url]

Gotchas & Warnings

• [Warning 1]

Decision Matrix (if comparing)

4. Link to Related Work

If research relates to a spec or issue:

• Add reference in research doc

• Update spec/issue to reference research

When to Use

Good candidates:

• Technology decisions affecting architecture

• Competitive analysis for product positioning

• Complex topics with many options

• Best practices you'll reference multiple times

• Market research for product ideas

Not needed for:

• Quick one-off questions (just ask)

• Simple API lookups (use Context7)

• Project-specific debugging

Updating Research

If research exists but is outdated:

Options:

1. Update existing (add new findings)
2. Replace entirely (fresh research)
3. View existing
4. Cancel

Integration

Research documents are discovered by:

• /plan

• Checks for relevant research before planning

• /spec

• References research in technical notes

• Future sessions - Research persists for reference

/research "topic" → ideas/{project}/notes/research/topic.md ↓ Future work automatically references this