research-trigger
Type: ANALYSIS-ONLY DAIC Modes: DISCUSS, ALIGN, IMPLEMENT, CHECK (all modes) Priority: High
Trigger Reference
This skill activates on:
- •Keywords: "research", "find information", "look up", "investigate", "best practices", "how do I", "what are the options", "search for", "find examples", "discover", "explore"
- •Intent Patterns:
(research|investigate|find|lookup).*?,how.*(do I|implement|use|approach),what.*(options|alternatives|ways to),best practices.*?,(search|find|discover).*?(information|examples|docs)
From: skill-rules.json - research-trigger configuration
Purpose
Automatically trigger the /research slash command when users ask questions requiring deep research, best practices lookup, or multi-source information gathering using natural language. Eliminates the need to remember the /research syntax.
Core Behavior
In any DAIC mode:
- •
Question Detection
- •Detect when user asks research-oriented questions
- •Examples: "How do I implement JWT auth?", "What are best practices for caching?"
- •Automatically invoke
/researchwith the question
- •
Intent Classification
- •Identify research intent patterns:
- •How-to questions ("How do I...")
- •Comparison questions ("What are the options for...")
- •Best practices queries ("Best practices for...")
- •Investigation requests ("Research X", "Investigate Y")
- •Identify research intent patterns:
- •
Research Invocation
- •Call
/researchcommand with extracted question - •Pass through to parallel research agents
- •Return comprehensive research findings with citations
- •Call
Natural Language Examples
Triggers this skill:
- •✓ "Research best practices for error handling"
- •✓ "How do I implement OAuth2?"
- •✓ "What are the options for state management?"
- •✓ "Find information about GraphQL subscriptions"
- •✓ "Investigate performance optimization techniques"
- •✓ "Look up JWT token refresh patterns"
- •✓ "Search for examples of Sentry integration"
- •✓ "Discover alternatives to Express middleware"
- •✓ "What are best practices for API versioning?"
Does NOT trigger:
- •✗ "What is the current mode?" (DAIC mode question, not research)
- •✗ "What's in progress?" (project status, not research)
- •✗ "What files changed?" (git status, not research)
Safety Guardrails
ANALYSIS-ONLY RULES:
- •✓ NEVER call write tools (Edit, Write, MultiEdit)
- •✓ Only invokes /research command which is read-only
- •✓ Safe to run in any DAIC mode
- •✓ Provides research findings and recommendations only
Invocation Rules:
- •Only invoke /research when clear research intent detected
- •Extract the full question from user's message
- •Handle "how", "what", "why" questions appropriately
- •Distinguish research questions from status/info queries
Implementation Notes
This skill acts as a natural language wrapper around /research. The actual research logic lives in .claude/commands/research.md, which:
- •Classifies query type (breadth-first vs depth-first)
- •Launches parallel research subagents
- •Synthesizes findings with automatic citations
- •Returns comprehensive research report
This skill simply detects the intent and routes to that command.