/research, Focused Investigation

When to Use

• Evaluating whether a dependency has a newer version or has been superseded
• Finding community best practices for a specific technical problem
• Reading official documentation for an API or library
• Investigating how other projects solve a similar problem
• Checking if a pattern used in the codebase has known issues
• Any time you need external information before making a decision

Don't use when: you need to act on findings immediately (use /marshal which calls /research internally).

Modes

Single (default): one agent, 2-4 queries, 3-6 sources. Steps 1-5 below.

Parallel (/research --parallel): scout agents investigate independent angles of the same question using Fleet wave mechanics. See Parallel Mode below. Without the flag, prefer parallel mode (and say so in the plan) when the question naturally decomposes into 3+ independent angles: evaluating multiple competing technologies or approaches, distinct sub-questions that don't depend on each other, or time-sensitive research where parallel execution matters.

If the question is narrow and focused, stay single-agent. Don't parallelize what a single agent can answer in 5 minutes.

Protocol (Single Mode)

Step 1: FORMULATE

Convert the research question into 2-4 specific search queries:

• Official docs query (e.g., "express.js middleware error handling docs")
• Community/GitHub query (e.g., "express error middleware best practices site:github.com")
• Technical blog/comparison query (e.g., "express vs fastify error handling 2025")
• Release notes query if version-specific (e.g., "express 5.x changelog breaking changes")

State the question clearly in one sentence before searching.

Step 2: SEARCH