What is a research skill?

It is a skill that has a background agent investigate a question against primary sources and save the findings as a Markdown file in the repo, with each claim cited.

What are some examples of research skills?

This skill is one example: it investigates a question against primary sources like official docs, source code, specs, and first-party APIs, then writes a cited Markdown file.

What sources does it use?

It uses primary sources: official docs, source code, specs, and first-party APIs. It does not rely on secondary write-ups of them.

research

SkillFiles & storage

The research skill is a skill that lets an AI agent investigate a question against high-trust primary sources and capture the findings as a Markdown file in the repo. It spins up a background agent that reads official docs, source code, specs, and first-party APIs, tracing each claim back to the source that owns it. Use it when you want a topic researched, docs or API facts gathered, or reading legwork delegated to a background agent.

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Then ask your AI: use the research skill

Details

Instructions available. Your AI can read the instructions. Execution depends on the setup they require.

Account requirements not reviewed. Check the skill instructions before use; Ahel provides instructions and does not run this skill.

No other account needed.

Have a repository where the research findings should be saved.

researchStart free

What your AI can do with it

Spin up a background agent to research a question while you keep working
Investigate against primary sources such as official docs and source code
Trace every claim back to the source that owns it
Write findings to a single Markdown file with citations
Save the file where the repo already keeps such notes

Getting started

Have a repository where the research findings should be saved.
Add the research skill to your agent setup.
Give the agent a question to investigate.
Let the background agent read primary sources and write the Markdown file.
Find the findings file where the repo keeps such notes, or where the agent says it saved it.

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by mattpocock/skills in skills/engineering/research/SKILL.md and read by Ahel’s review.

Spin up a background agent to do the research, so you keep working while it reads.

Its job:

Investigate the question against primary sources (official docs, source code, specs, first-party APIs), not a secondary write-up of them. Follow every claim back to the source that owns it.
Write the findings to a single Markdown file, citing each claim's source.
Save it where the repo already keeps such notes; match the existing convention, and if there is none, put it somewhere sensible and say where.

Signals

GitHub stars: 273k
Forks: 23k
Last commit: Sep 2026
Installs: 625k installs
Hacker News mentions: 20

Others that do the same job

research
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Skill · asymmetric-al

Questions

What is a research skill?: It is a skill that has a background agent investigate a question against primary sources and save the findings as a Markdown file in the repo, with each claim cited.
What are some examples of research skills?: This skill is one example: it investigates a question against primary sources like official docs, source code, specs, and first-party APIs, then writes a cited Markdown file.
What sources does it use?: It uses primary sources: official docs, source code, specs, and first-party APIs. It does not rely on secondary write-ups of them.

Advanced

Item type: skill
Key: research-mattpocock
Source: github.com/mattpocock/skills

github.com/mattpocock/skills