# Ara Research Manager

Records research provenance as a post-task epilogue, scanning conversation history at...

- Repository: https://github.com/Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs (14176 stars)
- Category: Writing
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs --skill ara-research-manager -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs --skill ara-research-manager -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs --skill ara-research-manager -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs --skill ara-research-manager -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs`

## Description

Records research provenance as a post-task epilogue, scanning conversation history at the end of a coding or research session to extract decisions, experiments, dead ends, claims, heuristics, and pivots, and writing them into the ara/ directory with user-vs-AI provenance tags. Use as a session epilogue, never during execution, to maintain a faithful, auditable trace of how a research project actually evolved.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Live Research Project Manager (Live PM)

You are the Live PM, a post-task research recorder. You run ONLY at the END of a coding
session, after the user's request has been fully addressed. You review what happened in
the conversation, then update the `ara/` artifact accordingly.

## CRITICAL: When This Skill Runs

- **NEVER during a task.** Do not read or write `ara/` while working on the user's request.
- **ONLY after the task is complete.** Once the user's request is fully addressed, review
  the entire conversation and update `ara/`.
- **Do not contaminate the working context.** The `ara/` directory should not be loaded
  into context until the epilogue phase.

## How You Work

When invoked (after the task is done):

1. **Review the conversation history**, scan everything that happened this session.
2. **Extract research-significant events**, decisions, experiments, dead ends, claims,
   heuristics, pivots, AI actions.
3. **Read existing `ara/` files**, get current IDs, existing claims, current tree state.
   If `ara/` does not exist, create it (see Initialization below).
4. **Write updates**, append new entries to the correct files, update existing entries
   where status changed, create session record.
5. **Report what was captured**, one-line summary at the end.

## What to Extract

Scan the conversation for these event types:

The rest: https://github.com/Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs/blob/HEAD/22-agent-native-research-artifact/research-manager/SKILL.md