Desk Research
Evidence-grounded research with selectable depth and discipline. Use for any look-up, find-out, fact-check, or comprehensive investigation, including prior art and best practice surveys. Carries a mode parameter (quick / standard / applied / deep) with `quick` as default — casual phrasings (`look up`, `find out`, `quick check`) stay quick; academic phrasings (`research with citations`, `evidence-grounded`, `go deep`, `comprehensively`) bias standard or deep; practitioner phrasings (`applied patterns for`, `best practice for`, `prior art on`, `grey literature`) bias applied. Quick mode is inline, ≤5 fetches, no artifact. Standard mode produces `<topic-slug>-survey.md` with GRADE-style confidence per finding from peer-reviewed and primary sources. Applied mode produces `<topic-slug>-survey.md` calibrated for practitioner grey literature with a discipline-aware confidence overlay. Deep mode additionally auto-runs `/devils-advocate`, producing `<topic-slug>-counterpoints.md`.
Security AStatic scan found no risk patternsHow grading works ›
From the source SKILL.md
The research lifecycle's anchor. Selects one of four modes based on the prompt's depth and discipline signals, dispatches retrievers, synthesises findings with citations and per-finding confidence ratings, and (in deep mode) adversarially reviews its own output.
What this skill does
Desk Research is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the research-methods sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/desk-research/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.
Who uses this skill
The Desk Research Claude Code skill is built for researchers, data scientists, academics, and analysts working with complex data and scientific literature. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 196,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).
How to install
Free
Manual install (2 steps)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/desk-research
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/desk-research/SKILL.md \
-o ~/.claude/skills/desk-research/SKILL.md
Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/desk-research/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.
Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/desk-research/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\desk-research\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.
Telegram
📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram
Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →
Pro
One-click install via the desktop app
The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.
Pro
For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the Desk Research Claude Code skill?
Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy
SKILL.md from the source repository to
~/.claude/skills/desk-research/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at
claudskills.com/install/.
What does the Desk Research skill do?
Evidence-grounded research with selectable depth and discipline. Use for any look-up, find-out, fact-check, or comprehensive investigation, including prior art and best practice surveys. Carries a mode parameter (quick / standard / applied / deep) with `quick` as default — casual phrasings (`look up`, `find out`, `quick check`) stay quick; academic phrasings (`research with citations`, `evidence-grounded`, `go deep`, `comprehensively`) bias standard or deep; practitioner phrasings (`applied patterns for`, `best practice for`, `prior art on`, `grey literature`) bias applied. Quick mode is inline, ≤5 fetches, no artifact. Standard mode produces `<topic-slug>-survey.md` with GRADE-style confidence per finding from peer-reviewed and primary sources. Applied mode produces `<topic-slug>-survey.md` calibrated for practitioner grey literature with a discipline-aware confidence overlay. Deep mode additionally auto-runs `/devils-advocate`, producing `<topic-slug>-counterpoints.md`.
Is this skill free to install?
Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.
When should I use the Desk Research skill?
Use Desk Research when your Claude Code task falls under the Science & Research category — specifically in the research methods area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Desk Research" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at
/category/science/.
What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Desk Research skill fit in?
A Claude Code skill is a
SKILL.md file that lives under
~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Desk Research is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Science & Research category. Learn more at
/learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.
Attribution & license
Cite this skill
If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:
APA
eugenelim. (2026). Desk Research [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/desk-research/
BibTeX
@misc{desk-research-2026,
author = {eugenelim},
title = {Desk Research [Claude Code skill]},
year = {2026},
publisher = {ClaudSkills},
url = {https://claudskills.com/skills/desk-research/}
}Embed this skill
Promote, attribute, or link this skill from your own README, blog post, or documentation. All three snippets are free to use — no sign-up, no API key. More distribution surfaces →
Badge
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Security scan
Grade A · scanned 2026-09-28 — free static scan against the OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10.
No risk patterns were found in any of the ten OWASP-aligned categories. How grading works ›
- ✓ Prompt injection
- ✓ Data exfiltration
- ✓ Supply chain
- ✓ Reverse shell
- ✓ Credentials
- ✓ Execution
- ✓ Filesystem
- ✓ Persistence
- ✓ Obfuscation
- ✓ Network
Show this grade on your repo (click to copy):
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