Research Orchestrator

Diagnose your research needs, build the optimal skill chain, and guide execution step by step. No external tools — pure routing. Reads research-memory/ status to recommend what to run and when.

Purpose

Research Orchestrator is the traffic controller for all 8 research skills. It answers:

• What research do I need right now?

• What's already done, and what's missing?

• In what order should I run the skills?

• What's stale and needs refreshing?

This skill never conducts research itself. It reads research-memory/ to diagnose the current state, analyzes the user's request, and produces a step-by-step execution plan pointing to the right skills.

"Doing research without a plan is like shopping without a list — you'll miss what matters and waste time on what doesn't."

Modes

Mode When to Use Behavior

A: Full Research New brand/product, empty research-memory/ Chain all 8 skills in dependency order

B: Focused Research Specific question or area needed Select 1-3 skills based on request

C: Refresh Existing research is outdated Re-run stale skills in Refresh mode

D: Validate Strategy brief exists, need expert check Run expert-validator only

Auto-Load Protocol

On every invocation, BEFORE any routing:

• Check research-memory/ directory

• If files exist → Read ALL .md files (except README.md)

• For each file, assess:

• Exists? — File present with substantive content (not just scaffold headers)

• Last updated — Extract date from > Last updated: header or research-log.md

• Richness — Rich (detailed data) / Adequate / Thin (scaffold only)

• Enrichment status — For competitive-intel.md : which skills have contributed? ([competitor-finder] / [competitor-analyzer] / [competitor-visual] )

• Expert validation — For strategy-brief.md : are [expert-validator] sections populated?

• Read research-log.md → Extract last execution date per skill

• Check brand-memory/ (read-only) → If exists, use business context to pre-fill recommendations

• Build Status Dashboard (see Step 1 below)

Process

Step 1: Build Status Dashboard

Goal: Show the user exactly where their research stands.

Generate this dashboard from the Auto-Load data:

Research Status Dashboard ══════════════════════════ 📊 Market Landscape : [STATUS] [DATE_INFO] 🏢 Competitive Intel : [STATUS] [DATE_INFO] [ENRICHMENT_INFO] 👥 Customer Insight : [STATUS] [DATE_INFO] 💬 Customer Language : [STATUS] [DATE_INFO] 📋 Strategy Brief : [STATUS] [DATE_INFO] [VALIDATION_INFO] 📝 Research Log : [LAST_ENTRY_DATE]

Status values:

• ✅ Complete — File exists with substantive content

• ⚠️ Stale (Xd ago) — Complete but outdated (30+ days)

• ⚠️ Partial — File exists but missing sections (e.g., competitive-intel with finder only)

• ❌ Missing — File doesn't exist or is empty scaffold

Staleness thresholds:

• 30+ days → "Update recommended"

• 90+ days → "Update strongly recommended"

• 180+ days → "Re-research needed"

Always show the dashboard first — it grounds the conversation in facts, not assumptions.

Step 2: Analyze Request + Select Mode

Goal: Match the user's request to the right mode.

Condition Auto-Suggest

research-memory/ empty or missing + broad request Mode A: Full Research

research-memory/ empty + specific area mentioned Mode B: Focused (but recommend Full)

research-memory/ has data + specific area mentioned Mode B: Focused

research-memory/ has data + "update"/"refresh"/"renew" Mode C: Refresh

strategy-brief.md exists + "validate"/"review"/"check" Mode D: Validate

Ambiguous request Show dashboard → ask user to choose

Present the suggested mode with a one-line rationale. Let the user confirm or override.

Step 3: Build Execution Path

Goal: Generate the ordered list of skills to run, respecting dependencies.

Skill Dependency Map

market-scanner ─────────────────────────────────────┐ → market-landscape.md │ │ competitor-finder ──┬── competitor-analyzer │ → competitive- │ → enriches messaging/CTA ├─→ research-synthesizer intel.md │ │ → strategy-brief.md (skeleton) └── competitor-visual │ │ → enriches design/visual │ ▼ │ expert-validator audience-profiler ──── voice-of-customer │ → enriches strategy → customer- → customer-language.md │ -brief.md insight.md │ │ ────────────────────────────────────┘

Group independence (for Mode A):

• Group 1 (Market): market-scanner — no prerequisites

• Group 2 (Competition): competitor-finder → competitor-analyzer → competitor-visual — sequential chain

• Group 3 (Customer): audience-profiler → voice-of-customer — sequential chain

• Group 4 (Synthesis): research-synthesizer → expert-validator — requires Groups 1+2+3

Groups 1, 2, 3 are independent of each other — user can choose the starting group.

Mode A: Full Research Path

Present the complete chain:

📋 Full Research Plan ═════════════════════ Group 1 — Market Step 1: market-scanner → market-landscape.md

Group 2 — Competition Step 2: competitor-finder → competitive-intel.md (skeleton) Step 3: competitor-analyzer → competitive-intel.md (+messaging) Step 4: competitor-visual → competitive-intel.md (+design)

Group 3 — Customer Step 5: audience-profiler → customer-insight.md Step 6: voice-of-customer → customer-language.md

Group 4 — Synthesis (after Groups 1-3) Step 7: research-synthesizer → strategy-brief.md Step 8: expert-validator → strategy-brief.md (+expert review)

💡 Groups 1-3 are independent. Which group would you like to start with?

Mode B: Focused Research Path

• Map user request to target skill(s) using this table:

User Request Pattern Target Skill Prerequisite

Market size, trends, structure market-scanner None

Find competitors, competitive set competitor-finder None

Competitor website, messaging, pricing competitor-analyzer competitor-finder ✅

Competitor design, visual, screenshots competitor-visual competitor-finder ✅

Target audience, segments, journey audience-profiler None

Customer language, reviews, community voice-of-customer audience-profiler recommended

Strategy brief, cross-analysis, synthesis research-synthesizer market-scanner + competitor-finder + audience-profiler ✅

Expert review, validate strategy expert-validator research-synthesizer ✅

• Check prerequisites against dashboard status

• If prerequisite missing → include it in the path

• Present the focused path

Mode C: Refresh Path

• Read research-log.md → calculate days since last run per skill

• Identify stale skills (30/90/180-day thresholds)

• Build refresh path — stale skills only, in dependency order

• Cascade rule: If a data-producing skill refreshes, downstream synthesis may need refresh too:

• market-landscape refreshed → flag research-synthesizer for refresh

• competitive-intel refreshed → flag research-synthesizer for refresh

• customer-insight refreshed → flag voice-of-customer + research-synthesizer for refresh

Mode D: Validate Path

• Check strategy-brief.md exists with content

• If YES → direct to expert-validator

• If NO → explain prerequisite chain: research-synthesizer first (and its prerequisites if missing)

Step 4: Guide Execution

Goal: Hand off to the first skill and provide ongoing navigation.

Language: 사용자가 언어를 지정하면 대시보드 및 안내 텍스트를 해당 언어로 출력합니다. 개별 스킬 호출 시 동일한 언어 설정을 전달합니다.

Initial handoff:

▶ Next skill: [SKILL_NAME] Purpose: [one-line description] Input needed: [what the user should prepare]

Say "[SKILL_NAME] 실행해줘" to start.

After each skill completes:

Provide a transition prompt:

✅ [COMPLETED_SKILL] done → [output_file] saved

▶ Next: [NEXT_SKILL_NAME] Purpose: [one-line description]

Continue? Say "[NEXT_SKILL_NAME] 실행해줘"

After all research skills complete:

If strategy-brief.md exists with Next Steps → bridge to marketing execution:

🎯 Research complete! Your strategy brief recommends:

1. [Next Step 1] → [marketing skill name]
2. [Next Step 2] → [marketing skill name]
3. [Next Step 3] → [marketing skill name]

Ready to execute? Pick a next step to start.

Skill Quick-Reference

Skill MCP Tool Output Time Est.

market-scanner Perplexity market-landscape.md 5-10 min

competitor-finder Perplexity competitive-intel.md (skeleton) 5-10 min

competitor-analyzer Firecrawl competitive-intel.md (+messaging) 10-15 min

competitor-visual Playwright competitive-intel.md (+design) 10-15 min

audience-profiler Perplexity customer-insight.md 5-10 min

voice-of-customer Perplexity customer-language.md 5-10 min

research-synthesizer None strategy-brief.md 5-10 min

expert-validator Task Agents strategy-brief.md (+expert) 10-15 min

Quality Checklist

Before presenting a research plan, verify:

• Status Dashboard shown with accurate file states and dates

• Mode selection has clear rationale tied to dashboard state + user request

• Execution path respects all skill dependencies (no skill runs before its prerequisite)

• Each step in the path names the skill, its output, and what the user needs to provide

• Focused mode includes missing prerequisites in the path

• Refresh mode uses staleness thresholds consistently (30/90/180 days)

• Refresh cascade logic applied (upstream refresh → downstream re-synthesis flagged)

• Post-completion bridge to marketing execution skills (when strategy-brief.md has Next Steps)

Example: Full Research (Abbreviated)

User: "우리 브랜드 리서치를 처음부터 해야 하는데"

Dashboard: 📊 Market Landscape: ❌ Missing · 🏢 Competitive Intel: ❌ Missing · 👥 Customer Insight: ❌ Missing · 💬 Customer Language: ❌ Missing · 📋 Strategy Brief: ❌ Missing

Mode: A — Full Research (research-memory/ is empty)

Plan: market-scanner → competitor-finder → competitor-analyzer → competitor-visual → audience-profiler → voice-of-customer → research-synthesizer → expert-validator

Next: market-scanner — "비즈니스/제품 설명을 알려주시면 시작합니다."

Example: Focused Research (Abbreviated)

User: "경쟁사 웹사이트 메시징을 좀 더 깊게 분석해줘"

Dashboard: 📊 Market Landscape: ✅ Complete (2025-01-15) · 🏢 Competitive Intel: ✅ Complete (2025-01-12) · ...

Mode: B — Focused (competitor-analyzer targets website messaging) Prerequisite: competitor-finder ✅ already complete

Plan: competitor-analyzer only Post-completion: "competitive-intel.md가 업데이트되었습니다. research-synthesizer로 전략 브리프도 갱신할까요?"

Example: Refresh (Abbreviated)

User: "3개월 전 리서치인데 업데이트 필요해"

Dashboard: 📊 Market Landscape: ⚠️ Stale (95d) · 🏢 Competitive Intel: ⚠️ Stale (92d) · 👥 Customer Insight: ⚠️ Stale (90d) · 💬 Customer Language: ✅ 45d · 📋 Strategy Brief: ⚠️ Stale (88d)

Mode: C — Refresh (3 files exceed 90-day threshold) Plan: market-scanner (Refresh) → competitor-finder (Refresh) → audience-profiler (Refresh) → research-synthesizer (Refresh) Cascade: Strategy brief refresh needed because 3 upstream sources refreshed.

What This Skill Does NOT Do

• Conduct research → Use the individual research skills (market-scanner, competitor-finder, etc.)

• Write to research-memory/ → Each skill writes its own output; this skill only reads

• Execute marketing → Use execution skills (brand-voice, copy, SEO, email, etc.)

• Replace skill selection judgment → It recommends; the user decides

Research Orchestrator stays focused on routing — diagnosing what's needed, building the path, and guiding execution.