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research-first

Skill288 starsChanged 5 days agoMITView on GitHub

Look-before-build — search registries, repo, existing skills, and web for prior art before implementing. Appends Prior Art to the spec. Use after survey-context and before elaborate-spec, when adding dependencies, or when the task may already be solved.

12 other projects use a version of this.

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  • MicrosoftSkill

    council

    Convene the persona panel — six orthogonal review lenses — on a target. Cold independent fan-out, debate-to-consensus, synthesized verdict with recorded dissent and a roster manifest.

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The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

4 rules. 0 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 3 are very specific to this project.

  • 0

    Common

    Most of the 11 edited versions we read keep these.

  • 1

    Distinctive

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 3

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Very specific:

    Read specs/product/SCOPE_LATEST.yaml, specs/release-plan.yaml + epic shards, and the current task statement.

    line 17
  2. Very specific:

    Search in order: this repo → bigpowers skills (search-skills) → package registries → web docs.

    line 18
  3. Very specific:

    If opensrc finds a match, read its src/ or source directory and append findings to the Prior Art section:

    line 35
  4. Distinctive:

    If opensrc is not installed or the package is not cached, fall through to web docs normally.

    line 41

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 11 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md
<!-- story: e03s01 --><!-- story: e21s02 -->

Research First

HARD GATE — Do NOT implement until prior art is searched. Minimum outcome: adopt, extend, compose, or build — with evidence.

Process

  1. Read specs/product/SCOPE_LATEST.yaml, specs/release-plan.yaml + epic shards, and the current task statement.
  2. Search in order: this repo → bigpowers skills (search-skills) → package registries → web docs.
  3. Check opensrc cache — if the task integrates an external library, run bash scripts/bp-opensrc-check.sh (or npx opensrc search <pkg>) to find locally-cached source. Read the src/ directory for API shapes before writing any integration code.
  4. For each candidate: note name, URL/path, fit (adopt | extend | compose | build).
  5. Append ## Prior Art to requirements/SCOPE_LATEST.yaml notes or the active epic story.

opensrc Integration

opensrc is a local cache of 200+ open-source repos and npm/PyPI packages. Query it before building any external integration to avoid re-inventing documented API shapes.

# Check if a package is cached
npx opensrc search <package-name>

# Or use the bundled helper (checks all deps from package.json or requirements.txt)
bash scripts/bp-opensrc-check.sh [package.json|requirements.txt]

If opensrc finds a match, read its src/ or source directory and append findings to the Prior Art section:

opensrc: found <pkg> v<version> — exports <key classes/functions>

If opensrc is not installed or the package is not cached, fall through to web docs normally.

Outcome matrix

VerdictAction
adoptUse as-is; link in plan; no new code
extendWrap or configure existing solution
composeChain existing skills/modules
buildNew implementation — justify why others failed

Verify

→ verify: grep -rq 'Prior Art' specs/product specs/release-plan.yaml specs/epics 2>/dev/null

See REFERENCE.md for search commands and registry checklist.

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