Research Council Skill

Purpose

Orchestrate parallel research across multiple sources without the full Architecture Council process. Used when you need comprehensive research from different angles but don't need architectural debate and synthesis.

When to Use

Use Research Council	Use Architecture Council
Pure information gathering	Architectural decisions
Multiple search queries	Design tradeoff analysis
External standards research	Specification writing
Quick multi-angle investigation	ADR creation
Technology evaluation	System design

Council Composition

Agent	Query Focus	MCP
Internal Oracle	Codebase patterns	Grep, Glob, Read
Docs Oracle	Effect documentation	deepwiki
Standards Oracle	Industry standards	exa, playwright
Community Oracle	Best practices, examples	exa

Protocol

Phase 1: Query Definition

Define parallel research queries:

code

1. Internal: "How does our codebase handle X?"
2. Docs: "What does Effect documentation say about X?"
3. Standards: "What industry standards apply to X?"
4. Community: "What are common patterns for X?"

Phase 2: Parallel Research

Spawn oracle agents in parallel:

•Each oracle queries its domain
•Writes findings to shared report
•Signals completion

Phase 3: Synthesis

Combine findings into research report:

•Cross-reference sources
•Identify consensus
•Flag contradictions
•Summarize actionable insights

Report Format

markdown

# Research Report: <Topic>

**Generated**: YYYY-MM-DD
**Author**: Research Council

---

## Executive Summary

[Key findings in 3-5 bullet points]

---

## Internal Analysis

**Query**: "How does our codebase handle X?"

### Findings

[Codebase patterns found]

### Codebase References

| File | Relevance |
|------|-----------|
| `src/lib/...` | Description |

---

## Documentation Research

**Query**: "What does Effect documentation say about X?"
**Source**: deepwiki: Effect-TS/effect

### Findings

[Documentation patterns]

### Verification Status

- [x] API verified current
- [ ] Breaking changes checked

---

## Industry Standards

**Query**: "What industry standards apply to X?"
**Source**: exa search, ISA/FDA/ISO references

### Findings

[Standards references]

### Applicable Standards

| Standard | Relevance | Link |
|----------|-----------|------|
| ISA-95 | ... | ... |

---

## Community Patterns

**Query**: "What are common patterns for X?"
**Source**: exa search, GitHub, blog posts

### Findings

[Community patterns]

### References

1. [Reference 1]
2. [Reference 2]

---

## Cross-Reference Analysis

### Consensus

[What all sources agree on]

### Contradictions

[Where sources disagree]

### Gaps

[What no source addressed]

---

## Recommendations

1. [Actionable recommendation]
2. [Actionable recommendation]

---

## Sources

[Full citation list]

Example Invocation

User Request

"Research how event sourcing is used in IIoT manufacturing systems"

Claude Response

code

I'll convene a Research Council to investigate this from multiple angles.

**Research Queries**:
1. Internal: "Event patterns in our IIoT codebase"
2. Docs: "Effect EventLog patterns"
3. Standards: "ISA-95 event sourcing manufacturing"
4. Community: "IIoT event sourcing best practices"

[Oracles run in parallel]

**Report generated**: thoughts/shared/reports/2026-01-26-es-iiot-research.md

MCP Tool Usage

deepwiki (Documentation)

code

mcp__deepwiki__ask_question
  repoName: "Effect-TS/effect"
  question: "What is the recommended pattern for EventLog in production use?"

exa (Web Search)

code

mcp__exa__search
  query: "ISA-95 event sourcing manufacturing operations management 2024"

code

mcp__exa__search
  query: "event sourcing IIoT best practices industrial"

playwright (Standards Scraping)

For regulatory documents that need scraping:

code

mcp__playwright__navigate
  url: "https://www.isa.org/standards/..."

Query Templates

Technology Evaluation

code

Internal: "Do we already use {technology}?"
Docs: "What is {technology} designed for?"
Standards: "{technology} in {domain} standards"
Community: "{technology} production experience reviews"

Pattern Investigation

code

Internal: "How do we implement {pattern}?"
Docs: "Recommended implementation of {pattern}"
Standards: "Industry standards for {pattern}"
Community: "{pattern} best practices {domain}"

Problem Research

code

Internal: "Do we have this {problem}?"
Docs: "Known issues with {related-feature}"
Standards: "Industry solutions for {problem}"
Community: "{problem} solutions {technology}"

Lightweight vs Full Council

Research Council (This Skill)

code

Queries → Oracles → Report

•~10-15 minutes
•Information gathering
•Report output

Architecture Council (Full)

code

Documents → Agents → Journal → Synthesis → Spec → ADR → WBS

•~30-60 minutes
•Decision making
•Multiple artifacts

Output Location

Reports go to:

code

thoughts/shared/reports/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md

Related Skills

Skill	Integration
`/architecture-council`	Upgrade to full council when decisions needed
`/grounded-research`	Single-source research
`/effect-research`	Effect-specific research

Anti-Patterns

DON'T: Use for decisions

code

❌ "Should we use X or Y?" → Use Architecture Council
✅ "What is X and Y?" → Use Research Council

DON'T: Skip internal analysis

code

❌ Only search externally
✅ Always check codebase first

DON'T: Ignore contradictions

code

❌ "Source A says X"
✅ "Source A says X, but Source B says Y. Resolution needed."