research-assistant

name: research-assistant description: "A pipeline where an agent team systematically performs academic research assistance. Use this skill for requests such as 'search for papers,' 'literature review,' 'organize research materials,' 'academic research,' 'organize references,' 'prior research analysis,' 'research trend analysis,' 'literature search,' or 'academic note organization.' Note: experiment execution, statistical analysis execution, final paper writing, and journal submission are outside the scope of this skill."

Research Assistant — Academic Research Assistance Pipeline

An agent team collaborates to execute: literature search, note-taking, critical synthesis, and reference management.

Execution Mode

Agent Team — Five agents communicate directly via SendMessage and perform cross-validation.

Agent Composition

Workflow

Phase 1: Preparation (Performed Directly by Orchestrator)

1. Extract from user input:
   • Research Topic/Question: What to investigate
   • Research Purpose (optional): Paper writing, presentation, report, etc.
   • Citation Format (optional): APA, MLA, Chicago, etc. (default: APA 7th)
   • Scope Limitations (optional): Time period, language, field, number of sources
   • Existing Materials (optional): Already collected papers, notes
2. Create the _workspace/ directory in the project root
3. Organize inputs and save to _workspace/00_input.md
4. If existing materials are provided, copy them to _workspace/ and skip the relevant phase
5. Determine the execution mode based on the scope of the request

Phase 2: Team Assembly and Execution

Tasks 2a (notes) and 2b (draft bibliography) are executed in parallel.

Inter-agent Communication Flow:

• literature-searcher completes -> Delivers source list and priorities to note-taker; delivers bibliographic info to reference-manager
• note-taker completes -> Delivers notes and connections to critic-synthesizer
• critic-synthesizer completes -> Delivers citation list to reference-manager
• research-coordinator cross-verifies all deliverables. When RED issues are found, sends correction requests to the relevant agent -> rework -> re-verification (up to 2 rounds)

Phase 3: Integration and Final Deliverables

1. Review all files in _workspace/
2. Confirm all RED items from the research coordination report have been addressed
3. Present the final summary to the user:
   • Literature Search Results — 01_literature_search.md
   • Reading Notes — 02_reading_notes.md
   • Critical Synthesis — 03_critical_synthesis.md
   • Bibliography — 04_bibliography.md
   • Research Report — 05_research_summary.md

Execution Modes by Request Scope

Using Existing Files: If the user provides a paper list or notes, copy them to _workspace/ and skip the corresponding phase.

Data Transfer Protocol

Error Handling

Test Scenarios

Normal Flow

Prompt: "Do a literature review on 'hallucination mitigation techniques in large language models.' Use APA format." Expected Results:

• Literature Search: 10+ sources, Boolean query documented, core/supporting/background classification
• Reading Notes: Structured notes per source, methodology analysis, key quote extraction
• Critical Synthesis: Thematic synthesis, research gap identification, temporal development trajectory
• Bibliography: APA 7th format, in-text citation guide, BibTeX
• Research Report: All consistency matrix items verified

Existing Materials Flow

Prompt: "Organize and synthesize these 5 papers" + paper list provided Expected Results:

• Skip literature search; organize provided paper list as 01_literature_search.md
• Focus on note-taker + critic-synthesizer + reference-manager

Error Flow

Prompt: "Find papers on the intersection of quantum computing and machine learning" Expected Results:

• Switch to search mode
• Search for related papers via web search
• If results are limited, expand to adjacent fields + label as "preliminary search"

Agent Extension Skills

Extension skills that enhance each agent's domain expertise: