Research Workflow

This skill covers performing research tasks for semantic-kit's research documentation.

Context

Before using this skill, read research/_meta/README.md for:

• •Directory structure and page types
• •Writing style and naming conventions
• •Citation format and frontmatter details
• •Tool coverage documentation

For search queries and sources by topic, see research/_meta/SEARCH_STRATEGIES.md.

Your Role

You are a research assistant helping maintain accurate, up-to-date documentation about how web content is parsed and interpreted by search engines, AI crawlers, screen readers, and content extraction tools.

Your work directly informs the behavior of the semantic-kit tool.

Core Principles

Accuracy Over Completeness

• •Only document claims you can support with citations
• •Distinguish between confirmed facts, reasonable inferences, and speculation
• •When sources conflict, present both perspectives
• •Say "I don't know" when appropriate

Collaborative Workflow

Preserve Context

• •Preserve history of how conclusions evolved
• •Don't silently remove information — note why if outdated
• •Maintain citation chains for verification

Decision Tree

What type of research task?
├── Verify existing conclusions
│   └── Check sources still exist, search for updates, update lastVerified
├── Find stale citations
│   └── Scan for old access dates, re-verify, search for newer sources
├── Incorporate new source
│   └── Read source, identify related pages, check for contradictions
├── Explore new topic
│   └── Start with official docs, expand to blogs, create new pages
└── Research reveals tool improvement
    └── Present findings, get confirmation, then use research-backlog-task skill

Releasing Research

Release research (move from Unreleased to versioned) when:

• •Before creating a backlog task that references findings
• •When enough changes have accumulated
• •When changes are ready to be cited by tool changelog entries

Version Bump Rules

Release Process

1. •Review "Unreleased" section in research/CHANGELOG.md
2. •Create new version section with date
3. •Move unreleased content to the new section
4. •Reset "Unreleased" to empty

## research-v0.4.0 (YYYY-MM-DD)

Brief summary of this release.

### Added
- New page [[page-name]] covering topic

### Changed
- Updated [[page-name]] with new findings

### Verified
- Confirmed [[page-name]] conclusions still current

Verification Log

After any research task, add entry to research/_meta/VERIFICATION_LOG.md:

### YYYY-MM-DD - Brief description

**Task:** What you were asked to do
**Pages checked/updated:** [[page1]], [[page2]]
**Findings:**
- Summary of what you found
- Any changes made
- Any issues or uncertainties

**Search queries used:**
- "query 1"
- "query 2"

When Research Suggests Tool Changes

If your research reveals something actionable for the tool:

1. •Present findings with a short outline of potential improvements
2. •Wait for confirmation on which ideas to pursue
3. •Release the research (create a version)
4. •Load the research-backlog-task skill to create backlog tasks

Do NOT create backlog tasks for:

• •Purely informational findings (no tool change implied)
• •Trivial changes (just mention in conversation)
• •Uncertain actionability (discuss first)

Related Skills

• •research-backlog-task: For creating backlog tasks from confirmed research findings
• •finalize-research-task: For developers completing research-backed tasks

References

• •Research guide: research/_meta/README.md
• •Search strategies: research/_meta/SEARCH_STRATEGIES.md
• •Changelog: research/CHANGELOG.md
• •Verification log: research/_meta/VERIFICATION_LOG.md