delegated-research · diff
v1.0.1 to v1.1.0
46 added, 2 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: delegated-research
description: >-
Investigate a question against high-trust primary sources and capture the findings as a
Markdown file in the repo. Use when the user wants a topic researched, docs or API facts
- gathered, or reading legwork delegated to a background agent.
+ gathered, or reading legwork delegated to a background agent. NOT for decisions the user
+ must make, one-call lookups, or any code changes.
slug: delegated-research
- version: 1.0.1
+ version: 1.1.0
displayName: delegated-research
---
# Delegated Research
Spin up a **background agent** to do the research, so you keep working while it reads.
Its job:
1. Investigate the question against **primary sources** — official docs, source code, specs, first-party APIs — not a secondary write-up of them. Follow every claim back to the source that owns it.
2. Write the findings to a single Markdown file, citing each claim's source.
3. Save it where the repo already keeps such notes; match the existing convention, and if there is none, put it somewhere sensible and say where.
+
+ ## Invocation
+
+ Ask for it directly, e.g.:
+
+ /delegated-research What rate limits does the GitHub REST API apply to our token class?
+
+ Optional: name the output path. Default = wherever the repo keeps research notes
+ (look for `docs/`, `notes/`, `research/`); if no convention exists, pick a sensible
+ location and state where the file landed.
+
+ ## Example
+
+ Prompt: `What rate limits does the GitHub REST API apply to our token class?`
+ Result: a background agent reads the developer docs (primary pages, not blog posts),
+ writes `research/github-rest-rate-limits.md`, and footnotes every claim to the doc page
+ and section it came from — while you keep working on your own task.
+
+ ## Failure exits
+
+ - **Primary sources unreachable** (no network, 4xx/5xx, auth wall): report which sources
+ failed and stop. Do not silently substitute secondary write-ups; ask whether
+ secondary sources are acceptable.
+ - **Question too vague to research**: return 2–3 candidate interpretations of the
+ question and what each would require; do not pick one and guess.
+ - **No repo convention for notes**: write to a default location, say where, and note
+ that the convention is assumed, not discovered.
+
+ ## NOT for
+
+ - Decisions the user must make — this gathers facts; it does not choose between options.
+ - Quick lookups answerable in one tool call — just look it up; delegation overhead
+ isn't worth it.
+ - Any code or config changes — scope is one read-only investigation plus the single
+ findings file.
+
+ ## Misuse → fix
+
+ | Wrong | Fix |
+ |---|---|
+ | Findings cite a secondary write-up | Re-run that claim against the primary source that owns it |
+ | Agent edited code while "researching" | Revert the edits; scope is read-only plus the notes file |
+ | Unreachable sources quietly replaced with blogs | Stop and ask; substitution needs the user's yes |