/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 referenceLocation 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)
| Criteria | Option A | Option B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Ease of use | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ |
| Scalability | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ |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If research exists but is outdated: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. CancelIntegration
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