Research — Hybrid Router + Fallback

The runtime orchestrator for the research domain. Architecture C: deterministic classification → specialist delegation OR own plan-decompose-search-synthesize-cite workflow.

Portability

Requires WebSearch + WebFetch for the fallback workflow; specialist skills (pulse, grants, litreview, syllabus, patent, dossier) must be present for delegation to work. Node.js with docx package required if Q2 = document mode. Works in Claude Code CLI natively. In Claude.ai with web tools + Code Execution, the workflow is supported.

Distinct From engineering/autoresearch-agent

These two skills share the word "research" but serve completely different use cases:

• research/research/ (this skill) — research-query router + fallback workflow ("Research X")
• engineering/autoresearch-agent/ — Karpathy's autonomous file-optimization experiment loop ("Make this code faster")

No overlap. They coexist.

Hybrid Architecture (C)

Every invocation produces one of three outcomes:

1. Delegation — Classified as specialist-domain. Routes there. User sees the specialist's output.
2. Fallback execution — Classified as general research. Runs own plan → search → synthesize workflow.
3. Clarification request — Classification ambiguous OR a single bare-noun signal matched. Asks one forcing question (with a recommended answer) to disambiguate, then routes.

The skill never silently runs its fallback when a specialist would have done better. Routing transparency is what makes the hybrid architecture trustworthy.

Specialist Registry

| Specialist | Routing signals | Domain | |---|---|---| | pulse | reddit / hn / x / buzz / sentiment / trending / "what's people saying" / "pulse on" / "take the pulse" / "current conversation" | Multi-source recency research | | grants | NIH / grant / R01 / K-award / RePORTER / NOSI / "grants for" / FDA / "study section" / "principal investigator" | NIH grant-funding intelligence | | litreview | literature review / PICO / SPIDER / systematic review / "review papers on" / meta-analysis | Academic literature orientation | | syllabus | syllabus / course outline / curriculum / "reading list" / "for my class" / "for my students" | Course supplementary reading | | patent | prior art / FTO / freedom to operate / patent / "patent landscape" / invention / novelty search / "ip landscape" | Patent prior-art + landscape | | dossier | "dossier on" / "due diligence" / "background check" / "prep me for" / "competitor research" / "investor diligence" / "interview prep" / "background on" | Decision-grade entity research |

Escalation → deep-research: when a wrong answer is expensive (strategy, comparing N options, hypothesis validation, mapping a field) and rigor matters more than speed, escalate to the deep-research skill instead of the fast fallback workflow — it runs a triangulated, multi-round, adversarial investigation and persists an auditable, reusable research folder. This router is the fast path; deep-research is the heavyweight one.

Agent Integrity Rules

This skill obeys the research-pack convention:

• Execution discipline (fallback only): Sequential searches. 1 q/sec rate limit. Confirm response received before next call.
• Source discipline: Cite only sources returned by this session's tool calls. Training knowledge labeled [Background — not from search] and excluded from counts.
• Three-count tracking (fallback only): Queries sent / sources received / sources cited.
• Retry policy: On failure → wait 3s → retry once → log. After 3 consecutive failures: stop, alert user.
• Routing discipline: Never delegate silently. Always state the decision + accept override.

Phase 1: Grill-Me Intake (2–4 Questions)

Intake is intentionally minimal — the goal is to route fast, not to interrogate. One question per turn.

Q1 (always) — Research question

> What's the research question? State it in 1–2 sentences. Specific is better than broad — "AI for healthcare" gets you a vague survey; "How are health systems integrating LLM-based clinical decision support?" gets you a useful answer.

Refuse mush. If user says "research AI", push back once: "What about AI specifically — adoption, safety, capability, funding, regulation, comparison? Pick an angle."

Q2 (always) — Output preference

> What output do you want? Pick one: > 1. Quick chat briefing (5-min read, markdown in chat) > 2. Standalone document (.docx with citations, shareable)

Forcing choice. Document mode triggers deeper search budgets and full audit logs.

Q3 (asked only when classification returns ask or fallback with no signals) — Domain disambiguation

> Quick clarification — pick the closest match (recommended: {N} — your question matched a `{specialist}` signal): > 1. Academic literature (papers, peer-reviewed) > 2. Industry / trends (what's the buzz, news, sentiment) > 3. Specific entity (a company, person, organization) > 4. Technology / patents (prior art, IP landscape) > 5. Grant funding (NIH, foundations) > 6. Course material (syllabus or curriculum) > 7. None of the above — run general research

When the classifier returned ask (single bare-noun signal), pre-mark the recommended option. Skip if classification produced a silent route (≥2 signals OR one strong multi-word phrase).

Q4 (asked only if Q3 was needed AND user picked "none of the above") — General-research scope

> For general research, what's your time horizon — quick scan (5 searches) or thorough (15 searches)?

Skip if a specialist took over.

Stop condition: After Q4 (or earlier if dependency skips applied), commit and start Phase 2. Most invocations exit intake after Q1 + Q2.

Phase 2: Deterministic Classification

This is deterministic, not LLM-reasoned — for speed, debuggability, and consistency.

python
SIGNALS = {
  pulse:    ["reddit", "hn", "hacker news", "x.com", "twitter", "buzz",
             "sentiment", "trending", "what are people saying",
             "what's happening", "the conversation around",
             "pulse on", "take the pulse", "current conversation"],
  grants:   ["nih", "grant", "grants for", "r01", "r21", "k-award", "reporter",
             "nosi", "funding", "fda", "study section", "principal investigator"],
  litreview:["literature review", "lit review", "litreview", "pico", "spider",
             "systematic review", "review papers on", "research papers on",
             "papers about", "meta-analysis"],
  syllabus: ["syllabus", "course outline", "curriculum", "reading list",
             "for my class", "for my students", "course material"],
  patent:   ["prior art", "fto", "freedom to operate", "patent",
             "patent landscape", "invention", "novelty search",
             "patent search", "ip landscape"],
  dossier:  ["dossier on", "due diligence", "background check",
             "prep me for", "competitor research", "investor diligence",
             "interview prep", "research my competitor", "background on"]
}

# Signals are case-insensitive literal phrases (multi-word substring match).
# Bracketed placeholders (e.g., "research [company]") are intentionally NOT
# signals — they over-trigger on generic "research X" queries that should
# fall back to general research, not auto-route to dossier.
# STRONG signal = multi-word phrase (contains a space): pairs verb with noun
# ("dossier on", "prior art") and routes reliably.
# BARE-NOUN signal = single word ("funding", "fda", "patent", "grant"):
# too weak to silent-route on alone — it must trigger Q3 with a
# recommended answer instead.

For each specialist S:
  score[S] = count of SIGNALS[S] phrases matched in question (case-insensitive substring)

if max(score) >= 2:
  route_to = argmax(score)                  # high confidence — silent route
elif max(score) == 1 and only one specialist has score 1:
  if the matched phrase is multi-word (contains a space):
    route_to = that specialist              # strong phrase — silent route
  else:
    route_to = "ask"                        # bare noun — ask Q3, recommend that specialist
else:
  route_to = "fallback"                     # ambiguous or no match — ask Q3 / run fallback

Implementation: scripts/classifier.py --question "..." returns the routing decision + matched signals + per-specialist scores + (for ask) the recommended specialist. Use it; don't re-implement. The SIGNALS map and rules above are kept phrase-for-phrase in sync with the script — drift = bug.

Phase 3a: Specialist Delegation (≥2 signals OR one strong multi-word phrase)

When delegating:

1. Pass the user's question verbatim plus the output preference (Q2)
2. Let the specialist run its own grill-me intake — do NOT pre-answer specialist questions
3. Return specialist output as the user-visible result
4. Tag the result with [Delegated to: research → {specialist}] in the chat output so the user knows what skill produced it
5. Tag the audit log via scripts/routing_transparency_logger.py --action record_delegation

Phase 3b: Own Fallback Workflow

If routing produced no specialist match (and Q3 confirmed general research), run the 8-step fallback:

1. Decompose — break the question into 3–5 sub-questions (what / why / how / who / what's next). Show the decomposition before searching. scripts/fallback_decomposer.py --question "..." gives a deterministic starting point.
2. Source selection — per sub-question: recency → WebSearch+WebFetch (+Reddit/HN on signal); technical/docs → WebSearch+WebFetch; academic → Consensus MCP if connected, else WebSearch with scholar.google.com site filter; data/numbers → WebFetch primary documents; entity-level → offer dossier re-route.
3. Search — sequential per sub-question, 1 q/sec, 2–4 queries per source, broad-to-narrow.
4. Read + extract — WebFetch high-signal results; note every source URL.
5. Synthesize — 2–4 paragraphs per sub-question with inline citations; surface disagreement when sources disagree.
6. Cross-cutting patterns — 1–2 paragraphs across sub-questions: consensus, controversy, gaps.
7. Output — markdown brief by default; DOCX if user picked document mode.
8. Audit log — three counts (sent / received / cited) + per-source reliability tier (primary / secondary / tertiary).

Routing Transparency Protocol (Mandatory)

After classification, the skill always:

1. States the decision in one sentence: "Routing to litreview because you mentioned PICO and meta-analysis (2 signals)."
2. Offers override: "If you want general research instead OR a different specialist, say so now."
3. Proceeds with the recommended route if the user doesn't object — no timers, no countdowns.
4. If user overrides → accept, re-route, log the override via routing_transparency_logger.py --action record_override.

Never delegates silently. This is the trust-building property that makes the hybrid pattern work.

Output Format

Markdown brief (Q2 = quick chat briefing): title + *Generated: [DATE] | Routed: [specialist | fallback]*, then TL;DR (2-3 sentences) → Findings (one H3 per sub-question, inline citations) → Cross-Cutting Patterns → Sources (numbered, hyperlinked, reliability tier each) → Audit (three counts + failures).

DOCX (Q2 = standalone document): standard research-pack DOCX patterns — Arial 12pt, navy headings, blue table headers, hyperlinked sources, mandatory audit log section. Reference the docx skill for setup.

Audit log block (fallback mode)

Queries sent: N | Sources received: M | Sources cited: K
Failures: F (3-consecutive-failures triggered: yes/no)
Per-source tier: [URL — primary | secondary | tertiary]
Routing decision: fallback (no specialist matched)
Sub-questions: [list]

All routing decisions + overrides also logged to ~/.research_sessions/<session>.json via routing_transparency_logger.py.

Failure Modes

| Failure | Behavior | |---|---| | Single bare-noun signal (e.g., "funding", "fda") | Ask Q3 with the matched specialist pre-marked as the recommended answer. Never silent-route. | | Classification ambiguous (multiple 1-signal matches or none) | Ask Q3 (domain disambiguation). | | Specialist delegation fails | Note in chat. Offer to retry or fall back to general research. | | User overrides routing | Accept. Re-route. Log the override. | | Fallback search returns thin results | Surface explicitly. Suggest the question may be too niche or too new. Do not fabricate. | | 3 consecutive tool failures in fallback | Stop, alert user, share what was collected. | | Question is non-research (e.g., "write me code") | Decline politely. Suggest the appropriate skill. | | Sub-question can't be answered | Note as "limited public signal on this"; don't omit silently. | | Output format mismatch | Honor Q2; if unavailable, fall back to markdown with note. | | Specialist skill missing from environment | Skip it in classification scoring; route to fallback or next-best specialist. |

Anti-Patterns Rejected

• LLM-reasoned classification (must be deterministic keyword + intent matching)
• Silent delegation (always surface routing decision)
• Refusing to route to a specialist when ≥2 signals match
• Silent-routing on a single bare-noun signal ("research FDA approval trends" must ask, not auto-route to grants)
• Wall-clock affordances ("auto-proceed after Ns") — the model cannot wait; proceed with the recommended route if the user doesn't object
• Pre-answering the specialist's grill-me intake (let it run its own)
• Fabricating sources in fallback when search is thin
• Skipping audit log in fallback mode
• Treating "dossier on company]" as fallback when dossier is the right specialist (the verb-noun-paired phrase routes; the generic "research X" form does not)
• Auto-routing generic "research topic]" queries to a specialist ("research Microsoft" alone is ambiguous — could be dossier or general; ask Q3 instead of guessing)

Tooling

• scripts/classifier.py — Deterministic SIGNALS matching → routing decision (specialist / ask + recommended / fallback) + per-specialist score + matched phrases. --question "..." --output json.
• scripts/routing_transparency_logger.py — JSON-backed audit log at ~/.research_sessions/<session>.json. Records every routing decision, override, and delegation handoff.
• scripts/fallback_decomposer.py — Heuristic question → 3–5 sub-questions (what / why / how / who / what's next).

Reference Docs (each cites 7+ authoritative sources)

• references/hybrid_router_architecture.md — router-vs-run trade-offs + routing transparency principle
• references/deterministic_classification_canon.md — why keyword > LLM-reasoned for routing
• references/fallback_workflow_canon.md — plan-decompose-search-synthesize methodology

Dependencies

• WebSearch + WebFetch — Required for fallback workflow
• Specialist skills — Required for delegation: pulse, grants, litreview, syllabus, patent, dossier. If a specialist is missing, the router skips it and routes to fallback instead.
• Node.js docx library — Required if user picks document output (Q2 = standalone)
• Consensus MCP — Optional; used in fallback if academic sub-questions surface

Version: 1.1.0 Source spec: megaprompts/13-research-megaprompt.md Build pattern: Path B (direct conversion). v1.1.0: bare-noun signals now ask instead of silent-routing; 5s auto-proceed affordance removed; context-economy trim per the 2026-06 newgen audit.