Research Skill

Conduct deep research on any topic using Gemini CLI via a spawned sub-agent. Uses your Google AI subscription instead of Claude tokens — perfect for long research tasks that would otherwise eat your Clawdbot usage.

How It Works

When user says "Research: [topic]" or asks for deep research:

Step 1: Clarifying Questions (Always)

Before running any research, ask 2-3 quick questions to focus the work:

Start with the goal:

"Before I dive in - what's your goal here? Are you learning about this topic, making a decision, writing something, or just curious?"

Then adapt based on their answer:

If learning/curious:

• "Any specific aspect you're most interested in?"
• "How technical should I go? (High-level overview vs deep technical detail)"

If decision-making:

• "What decision are you trying to make?"
• "Any specific criteria or constraints I should focus on?"

If writing/creating:

• "What's the output? (Blog post, report, presentation?)"
• "Who's the audience?"

Keep it natural — 2-3 questions max. Don't interrogate.

Step 2: Spawn Research Agent

Once you have context, use sessions_spawn to run the research:

sessions_spawn(
  task: "Research: [FULL TOPIC WITH CONTEXT]
  
Use Gemini CLI to research this topic. Run:

gemini --yolo \"[RESEARCH PROMPT]\"

The research prompt should ask Gemini to cover:
1. Overview & Core Concepts - what is this, terminology, why it matters
2. Current State - latest developments, major players
3. Technical Deep Dive - how it works, mechanisms, key techniques
4. Practical Applications - real-world use cases, tools available
5. Challenges & Open Problems - technical, ethical, barriers
6. Future Outlook - trends, predictions, emerging areas
7. Resources - key papers, researchers, communities, courses

Save the output to: ~/clawd/research/[slug]/research.md

Be thorough (aim for 500+ lines). Include specific examples and citations.

IMPORTANT - When research is complete:
1. Send a wake event to notify the main agent immediately:
   cron(action: 'wake', text: '🔬 Research complete: [TOPIC]. Key findings: [2-3 bullet points]. Full report: ~/clawd/research/[slug]/research.md', mode: 'now')
2. When asked to produce an announce message, reply exactly: ANNOUNCE_SKIP",
  label: "research-[slug]"
)

Important: Include all context from your conversation in the task so the sub-agent understands the full picture.

Step 3: When You Receive Wake Event

You'll receive a wake with the research summary. Then:

• Share the findings with the user
• Offer to read the full report or dive deeper on sections

Output Location

Research saved to:

~/clawd/research/<slug>/research.md

Tips

• Research typically takes 3-8 minutes depending on complexity
• Gemini CLI uses your Google AI subscription quota
• The --yolo flag auto-approves file operations (non-interactive)
• Check ~/clawd/research/ for all past research
• Always include conversation context in the spawn task for better results