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/research

Deep research before planning. Launches parallel agents to search docs, web, and codebase, then synthesizes findings into actionable context.

Usage

/research <topic or question>

Arguments

Argument Required Description
topic or question Yes What to research — a concept, library, bug, or design question

What It Does

  1. Clarifies scope — asks focused questions about the topic before starting any research, to avoid wasting time on the wrong angle.

  2. Launches parallel agents — spawns up to 5 sub-agents simultaneously depending on the question:

  3. Codebase agent — Grep/Glob/Read to find existing patterns and implementations
  4. Docs agent — looks up official library or framework documentation via Context7 MCP or WebFetch
  5. Web agent — searches for real-world solutions, Stack Overflow answers, GitHub issues
  6. Dependencies agent — checks package versions, compatibility, and breaking changes

  7. UI/UX agent — researches design patterns and interaction models (for frontend questions)

  8. Checks in after research — surfaces key findings and unexpected results before synthesizing, giving you a chance to redirect.

  9. Synthesizes — combines all agent findings, resolves contradictions, and evaluates whether the proposed approach is the best one.

  10. Stress-tests — explicitly looks for downsides, edge cases, and maintenance costs of the recommended approach.

Output Format

### Answer
Direct response to the question.

### Evidence
Code snippets, doc quotes, or data backing up the answer.

### Sources
File paths and URLs.

### Related
Gotchas, related patterns, upcoming deprecations.

### Downsides & Risks
What could go wrong with the recommended approach.

When to Use

  • Before writing a spec when you need to understand an unfamiliar domain
  • When evaluating two competing approaches
  • When debugging a problem you don't fully understand yet
  • Before proposing an architectural change

Example

/research how does session management work in our app
/research best approach for real-time notifications in Next.js
/research why is our auth middleware rejecting valid tokens

See Also

  • /zoom-out — Structural map of the codebase
  • /spec — Start a spec after research is complete