--- name: silver-research description: This skill should be used for SB-orchestrated research workflow: explore → MultAI (landscape | tech-selection | competitive) → brainstorm → hand off to silver:feature or silver:devops argument-hint: "" version: 0.1.0 --- # /silver:research — Tech Decisions, Architecture Spikes, Comparisons SB orchestrator for technology decisions, architecture spikes, tech comparisons, and competitive intelligence. Research always precedes implementation — findings are written to `.planning/research/` and referenced by the receiving workflow. **Routing note:** `silver:research` takes precedence over any other matched workflow — research informs the implementation workflow. If an instruction matches both research and feature/devops, run research first, then hand off. Never does research directly — orchestrates MultAI research tools and then hands off to the appropriate implementation workflow. ## Pre-flight: Load Preferences Read the **User Workflow Preferences** section of `silver-bullet.md` to load user workflow preferences before any other step. Silently apply any stored routing, skip, tool, MultAI, or mode preferences throughout this workflow. ```bash grep -A 50 "^## [0-9]\+\. User Workflow Preferences" silver-bullet.md | head -60 ``` Display banner: ``` ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SILVER BULLET ► RESEARCH WORKFLOW ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Question: {$ARGUMENTS or "(not specified)"} ``` ## Composition Proposal Before beginning execution, read existing artifacts to determine context and propose which PATHs to include or skip. ### 1. Context Scan Research is an exploration-focused workflow — it produces artifacts, not shipped code. No FLOW 7 (EXECUTE), FLOW 11 (VERIFY), or FLOW 13 (SHIP) are included. | Artifact | Signal | Action | |----------|--------|--------| | `.planning/research/` directory exists | Prior research artifacts present | Note for continuity — do not skip, always re-scope | | External spec artifacts provided | Structured source material | Include FLOW 4 (SPECIFY) to ingest into SPEC.md | ```bash # Check for existing research artifacts ls .planning/research/ 2>/dev/null | head -5 ``` ### 2. Build Path Chain Construct the proposed flow chain for research/exploration work. Short chain — research produces artifacts only: FLOW 2 (EXPLORE) → FLOW 3 (IDEATE) → FLOW 4 (SPECIFY) No per-phase loop — research is a single-pass engagement that hands off to the appropriate implementation workflow (silver:feature or silver:devops). ### 3. Display Proposal Display the composition proposal to the user: ``` ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SILVER BULLET ► FLOW COMPOSED │ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ Flows: EXPLORE → IDEATE → SPECIFY │ │ Skipped: EXECUTE/VERIFY/SHIP — research produces artifacts only │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Approve composition? [Y/n] ``` ### 4. Auto-Confirm in Autonomous Mode In autonomous mode (§10e), auto-confirm the composition proposal with a log message: ``` ⚡ Autonomous mode: auto-confirming composition — {path count} paths, {skipped count} skipped ``` ### 5. Create WORKFLOW.md If `.planning/WORKFLOW.md` does not exist, create it from `templates/workflow.md.base`: - Populate `Intent:` with the research question ($ARGUMENTS) - Populate `Composed:` with the current ISO timestamp - Populate `Composer:` with `/silver:research` - Populate `Mode:` with the current mode (interactive or autonomous) - Record the confirmed flow chain in the Flow Log section header After each path completes, write status to Flow Log table: ``` | {#} | FLOW {N} ({name}) | complete | {artifacts produced} | ✓ | ``` ## Step-Skip Protocol When the user requests skipping any step: 1. Explain why the step exists (one sentence) 2. Offer: A. Accept skip B. Lightweight alternative C. Show me what you have 3. If user chooses A permanently: record in silver-bullet.md §10b and templates/silver-bullet.md.base §10b, then commit both files. ## Step 1: Clarify Research Question Invoke `silver:explore` (gsd-explore) via the Skill tool. Purpose: Socratic clarification — precisely define the research question before choosing the research mode. This prevents running the wrong MultAI path on an ambiguous question. After silver:explore completes, the research question should be specific enough to select a path. ## Step 2: Choose Research Path Ask: > What type of research question is this? > > A. Market/landscape — "What tools/solutions exist for X?", "What's the state of the art?", "What does the ecosystem look like?" > B. Tech selection — "Should we use X or Y?", "Which library/framework/approach is best for our case?", "Compare X vs Y" > C. Competitive/product intelligence — "How do competitors solve X?", "What does product Y do that we should learn from?" Wait for selection. Note: if the answer is obvious from $ARGUMENTS or silver:explore output, skip this question and proceed directly. ## Path 2a: Market/Landscape Research Invoked when: selection is A. **2a.1 — Landscape research across 9 sections** Invoke `multai:landscape-researcher` via the Skill tool. Purpose: generates a 9-section market landscape report covering vendors, tools, patterns, and trends. **2a.2 — Consolidate findings** Invoke `multai:consolidator` via the Skill tool. Purpose: synthesize the landscape report into unified findings with actionable recommendations. **Output:** Write consolidated findings to `.planning/research/-/landscape-report.md` Proceed to Step 3. ## Path 2b: Tech Selection Research Invoked when: selection is B. **2b.1 — Multi-AI perspectives** Invoke `multai:orchestrator` via the Skill tool. Purpose: 7-AI perspectives on the technical question from different expert viewpoints. **2b.2 — Weighted comparison matrix** Invoke `multai:comparator` via the Skill tool. Purpose: structured comparison matrix with weighted criteria for the options under consideration. **2b.3 — Unified recommendation** Invoke `multai:consolidator` via the Skill tool. Purpose: synthesize multi-AI perspectives + comparison matrix into a unified recommendation report. **Output:** Write consolidated report to `.planning/research/-/comparison-report.md` Proceed to Step 3. ## Path 2c: Competitive/Product Intelligence Invoked when: selection is C. **2c.1 — Competitive intelligence research** Invoke `multai:solution-researcher` via the Skill tool. Purpose: 7-AI competitive intelligence CIR — how do others solve this problem, what can we learn, what gaps exist. **Output:** Write CIR to `.planning/research/-/competitive-intelligence-report.md` Proceed to Step 3. ## Artifact Output Protocol After any research path completes, ensure the artifact directory exists before writing: ```bash mkdir -p ".planning/research/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)-{topic-slug}/" ``` The artifact file path will be referenced in the handoff to the receiving workflow (Step 4). Research lineage is fully traceable via the `.planning/research/` directory — the path is passed explicitly to the receiving workflow so provenance is never lost. ## Step 3: Apply Research to Engineering Design Invoke `silver:brainstorm` (superpowers:brainstorming) via the Skill tool. Purpose: apply research findings to engineering design — "what do we actually build and how?" Use the research artifact as primary input context for the brainstorm. ## Step 4: Hand Off to Implementation Workflow Ask: > Research complete. Which workflow should receive these findings? > > A. silver:feature — build a new feature based on research findings > B. silver:devops — infrastructure/deployment change based on research findings > C. Done — research-only engagement, no implementation needed If A: invoke `silver:feature` via the Skill tool. Pass the artifact path (`.planning/research/-/`) as context argument so gsd-discuss-phase can reference it. If B: invoke `silver:devops` via the Skill tool. Pass the artifact path as context argument. If C: summarize research artifacts created and their paths. Done.