--- name: desk-research-project-start description: "Start a stateful, multi-week research project — the lifecycle axis, orthogonal to the depth axis the `/research` skill carries. Triggers on explicit project-lifecycle phrasing — \"start a research project\", \"set up a research project on X\", \"begin a sustained investigation\", \"open a research dossier\" — never on a one-shot lookup. Scaffolds the three-layer project folder (overview.md + a raw sources/ layer + the later digest and synthesis), records the question and a possibly-empty working hypothesis, and sets phase to capture. Resolves output_dir: user-scope ~/.agentbundle/agentbundle-layout.toml [research] output_dir first (personal vault always wins regardless of which repo is active), then repo-scope, then two-branch elicitation (repo vs personal workspace) — never a silent .context/ default. Prompt-only: phase is a frontmatter string the agent reads and writes; no engine, index, daemon, or counter. Does not replace /research — episodic quick/standard/applied/deep lookups stay there." --- # /desk-research-project-start The entry point for **project mode** — a sustained, multi-week investigation that accumulates a corpus, as opposed to the one-shot episodic research the `/research` skill drives. Project mode is the **lifecycle axis**; depth (quick / standard / applied / deep) is the orthogonal axis and stays with `/research`. This skill scaffolds the project folder, records the question and a (possibly empty) working hypothesis, and sets the project to its first phase. It writes no findings — it sets up the place the rest of the lifecycle works in. ## Output rendering Tree / hierarchy — Render hierarchies as an ASCII tree (├─ └─ │) inside a fenced block, not as nested bullets. Key–value / one record — For a single record's fields, use an aligned key: value list, not a two-row table. ## When to invoke Explicit project-lifecycle phrasing only: *"start a research project on X"*, *"set up a research project"*, *"begin a sustained investigation"*, *"open a research dossier"*. A casual *"look up X"* or *"research with citations: Y"* is **not** a project — that stays with `/research` (the depth axis is the default front door; project mode never displaces it). ## What it creates A three-layer project folder: ``` /-/ overview.md # question · working hypothesis · shape · phase · stop-signal sources/ # raw layer — one file per source, never overwritten # (digest + synthesis files are added by later phases) ``` - `` is the project's start date; `` is the short (~2–5 word) kebab-case slug derived from the question, per the `/research` skill's topic-slug rule (§ Typed, topic-named artifacts). The date-plus-slug folder name namespaces the project, so working files **inside** the folder are bare-named (the folder already carries the topic) — the single exception is `-brief.md`, which is topic-named because it travels out of the folder (see `/desk-research-project-synthesize`). ### `overview.md` schema Front-matter the agent reads and writes by hand — there is no engine behind it: ```markdown --- question: working_hypothesis: shape: phase: capture stop_signal: not-yet-assessed # verdict_status: --- # — project overview ## Question ## Working hypothesis ## Phases - capture → digest → synthesize → feedback (human-driven; no skill auto-advances) ``` `phase` is a **string the agent reads and writes** — `capture` at start, advanced by hand as the human moves the project on. There is no counter, index, or state engine; the lifecycle is a prompt-driven habit (Charter Principle 3). ## Soft, revisable working hypothesis `working_hypothesis` **may be empty at start** — there is no refuse-without-a-claim gate. A project often begins as an open question; the hypothesis is *formed and revised in `memos.md`* (see `/desk-research-project-digest`) as evidence accumulates. Starting with a strong prior is fine too; it is held loosely and revised, never defended. ## Where the project lives — config-driven, elicit when not configured Resolve the project **output directory** in this order, **in this skill body**. Reading is **prompt-only** (Charter Principle 3): this skill reads a file and reasons about a path — there is no engine, index, daemon, or watcher behind it, and the only code that ever *writes* the layout file is the install-time append. See [`references/agentbundle-layout.md`](references/agentbundle-layout.md) for the `[research]` section's full schema. 1. **User-scope config** — read `~/.agentbundle/agentbundle-layout.toml` `[research] output_dir` if the file exists and the key is present. User-scope takes priority so that a personal vault (e.g. Obsidian) or a default output path applies regardless of which repo is active. 2. **Repo-scope config** — read `./agentbundle-layout.toml` `[research] output_dir` if the file exists and the key is present. Repo-scope is the fallback — useful for team-visible research committed to the repo when no personal config is set. Both files are **adopter-owned**, never shipped into a projected path (that would trip the self-host drift gate). The `output_dir` key is a **base** directory under which each project gets its own topic-named folder — never the leaf the project lands in: ```toml # agentbundle-layout.toml (adopter-created; optional) [research] output_dir = "docs/product/research" # a base; project folders are created under it ``` 3. **Two-branch elicitation** — when neither config resolves, ask the user which branch fits their situation (never silently default to a path): - **Repo branch** — "Commit to this repo? Suggest: `docs/product/research/` (team-visible, version-controlled). Enter path or press Enter to accept:" On accept, write `output_dir = ""` to `./agentbundle-layout.toml` `[research]` so subsequent projects skip elicitation. - **Personal branch** — "Write to a personal workspace (e.g. Obsidian vault)? Enter the absolute path. Example: `~/Documents//efforts/research/` (no default — Obsidian has no universal vault path). On accept, write `output_dir = ""` to `~/.agentbundle/agentbundle-layout.toml` `[research]` so subsequent projects skip elicitation. Never default to `.context/` — it is gitignored ephemeral scratch and does not survive workspace resets or session boundaries. **Anchor `output_dir` by the layout file's own location**, never against the ambient cwd: a **repo-root** file's `output_dir` is **repo-root-relative** (an absolute value is permitted but warn it as non-portable); a **user-profile** file's `output_dir` **must be an explicit absolute path** (`~`-anchored is fine), and a *relative* value there is an Ask-first deviation, never silently resolved. **Resolve, then surface, then write.** After anchoring, resolve `output_dir` to its **full absolute path** — `~`-expand it and **realpath-resolve it** so any symlink in the path is made visible and never silently followed out of the intended root — and **reject any `..` escape**. The `..` rejection and the realpath happen **after** anchoring, so a relative repo-file value that escapes via `..` (e.g. `output_dir = "../../etc"`) is caught regardless of which file supplied it; anchoring never blesses a `..`-bearing value as in-tree. Then **surface the resolved absolute path to the adopter before creating the project folder** — the first write is always preceded by the path you are about to write under. **A repo-root-sourced `output_dir` that resolves outside the repo tree** — or whose resolution required following a symlink out of the intended root — is **untrusted-origin**: a cloned, untrusted repo can carry a hostile `output_dir` (`../../etc`, `~/.ssh`, an out-of-tree symlink). **Confirm the resolved absolute path with the adopter before writing.** The user-profile file is foot-gun-only (the adopter authored it), but still surface its resolved path. **Never create the project inside the committed repo tree** (`docs/`, repo root) without explicit adopter confirmation — this is the deliberate, configured exception for product research (when a team commits desk-research output to `docs/product/research/`). For a high-stakes reasoning trail, configure a durable-but-separate path and link it from the brief. ## Source provenance — optional, additive axes When sources are captured into `sources/` (by `/source-map` or by hand), each source file's frontmatter MAY carry two **optional, independent** grading axes, modelled on the Admiralty/NATO scale: - `reliability` — the source's track record (A–F: how much the *source* has earned trust over time). - `credibility` — corroboration of the *specific claim* this source makes (1–6: how well that claim is independently confirmed). These **inform** the existing rail; they do not replace it. The claim-level rail stays **GRADE confidence + ≥3-source triangulation** (per the `/research` confidence schema). wiki-kit's binary Two-Source Rule is folded into triangulation, not shipped as a separate gate. Both axes are optional — a project that ignores them loses nothing but the extra provenance signal. ## Existing skills reused as phase operations Project mode **reuses the pack's seven existing skills** in phase roles — it does not rewrite them and injects no project-phase logic into their bodies. The mapping: | Existing skill | Role in the project lifecycle | |---|---| | `/research` | per-source episodic retrieval — a `standard`/`applied`/`deep` run that fills `sources/` with a cited finding-set for one source or sub-question | | `/source-map` | populates `sources/` — curates and grades candidate sources by primacy | | `/build-outline` | seeds the **initial** `synthesis-matrix.md` columns from the question's sub-questions (the emergent coding then overrides them) | | `/identify-perspectives` | supplies **perspective columns** for a contested topic — one lens per camp | | `/compare-hypotheses` | **is** the `hypotheses.md` synthesis for the adjudication shape — not re-derived | | `/devils-advocate` | runs at synthesis against the typed verdict — the per-finding counter-pass | | `/decision-archaeology` | **stays standalone** — self-contained rationale reconstruction, not part of the project lifecycle | The four `research-project-*` skills orchestrate these; they add the lifecycle (folder, phases, digest, brief), not new retrieval or synthesis primitives. ## What this skill is not - Not `/research` — that is the episodic depth axis; this is the project lifecycle axis. - Not a synthesis step — it writes no findings, only the scaffold. - Not an engine — `phase` and `stop_signal` are frontmatter strings; nothing computes or advances them automatically. ## Next Once `sources/` has material, run `/desk-research-project-digest` to build the middle layer. The phases are **human-driven**: this skill never advances `phase` past `capture`.