research

55 / 100 · Review before installing

Check before installing. Some of what it can do is expected: a coding skill usually runs build and test commands.

By SethGammon/Citadel (GitHub) · coding · 929 stars · scanned at commit 3c317a0

Focused research investigations. Converts questions into structured findings with confidence levels and source citations. Single agent by default; with --parallel (or when the question decomposes into 3+ independent angles) it spawns scout agents whose findings are compressed into a unified brief. Does not make decisions; produces information that informs the next step.

Works with any agent that supports SKILL.md skills.

What this skill can do

Runs commands on your computer

The author does not mention this. Expected for a coding skill.

Found in 87 places.

skills/research/SKILL.md, line 224node .citadel/scripts/telemetry-log.cjs --event wave-complete --agent research-fleet --session fleet-{slug} --status success
.claude-plugin/.mcp.json, line 4"command": "node",
.claude-plugin/.mcp.json, line 20"command": "node",

Show 17 more

core/memory/repository-store.js, line 7const { spawnSync } = require('child_process');
core/runtime/detect-runtime.js, line 7const { execFileSync: defaultExecFileSync } = require('child_process');
core/runtime/detect-runtime.js, line 83parentInfo = execFileSync(
core/runtime/detect-runtime.js, line 89parentInfo = execFileSync(
core/runtime/detect-runtime.js, line 96parentInfo = execFileSync(
core/runtime/install-contract.js, line 265"const { spawnSync } = require('child_process');",
core/runtime/install-contract.js, line 270"const result = spawnSync(process.execPath, [real, ...process.argv.slice(2)], { stdio: 'inherit', env: process.env });",
core/worktree/create.js, line 14const { execFileSync } = require('child_process');
core/worktree/create.js, line 19return execFileSync('git', args, {
hooks_src/harness-health-util.js, line 407require('child_process').execFileSync('mypy', ['--version'], { stdio: 'pipe' });
hooks_src/harness-health-util.js, line 411require('child_process').execFileSync('pyright', ['--version'], { stdio: 'pipe' });
hooks_src/init-project.js, line 179"const { spawnSync } = require('child_process');\n" +
hooks_src/init-project.js, line 184"const r = spawnSync(process.execPath, [real, ...process.argv.slice(2)], { stdio: 'inherit', env: process.env });\n" +
hooks_src/init-project.js, line 219require('child_process').spawnSync('node', [script, 'sweep'], {
hooks_src/post-edit.js, line 25const { execFileSync, spawnSync } = require('child_process');
hooks_src/post-edit.js, line 442result = spawnSync(cmd, args, {
hooks_src/post-edit.js, line 603execFileSync(cmd, [...cmdArgs, filePath], {

and 67 more places

Sends data to these websites: github.com

The author does not mention this.

Found in 1 place.

skills/research/SKILL.md, line 253on `WebFetch(https://github.com/jehna/readme-best-practices)` with zero output.

Reads your saved credentials, such as SSH keys or .env files

The author does not mention this.

Found in 2 places.

core/policy/external-actions.js, line 12{ regex: /\bcat\s+.*\.env(\b|\.)/, label: 'cat .env (secrets)' },
core/policy/external-actions.js, line 13{ regex: /\bsource\s+.*\.env(\b|\.)/, label: 'source .env (secrets)' },

Downloads and installs other software

The author does not mention this.

Found in 1 place.

hooks_src/harness-health-util.js, line 403return { command: 'npx tsc --noEmit', perFile: false };

Safer alternatives

Low-risk skills in the same category (coding) that look related. Check that one does what you need.

Install

Paste this into your terminal. It downloads exactly the version we scanned, not whatever is newest.

if [ -e ~/.agents/skills/'research' ] || [ -L ~/.agents/skills/'research' ]; then echo 'A skill folder named research already exists — not replacing it' >&2; false; else d=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --quiet --filter=blob:none --no-checkout 'https://github.com/SethGammon/Citadel' "$d" && git -C "$d" checkout --quiet '3c317a0bf13f147efaa695db7c24117349119d07' -- 'skills/research' && mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills && cp -R "$d"/'skills/research' ~/.agents/skills/'research' && rm -rf "$d"; fi

Codex reads ~/.agents/skills directly. For Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Antigravity or OpenCode, also link it. For Claude Code: ln -s ~/.agents/skills/'research' ~/.claude/skills/'research' (other agents: ~/.cursor/skills, ~/.copilot/skills, ~/.gemini/skills, ~/.gemini/config/skills, ~/.config/opencode/skills). Or install through the finder skill, which does both.

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Score history

Date	Version	Score
2026-11-08	`3c317a0`	55
2026-11-07	`3c317a0`	50