How to research a question and deliver a decision-ready recommendation.
Clarify the question. What exactly does the requesting agent need to know? Not "research React" but "which React state management approach best fits a real-time collaborative app with optimistic updates?"
Identify 2-4 candidate approaches. Never research just one option.
For each candidate:
Synthesize into a recommendation brief:
Write the brief to tasks/research-done/{request-id}.md
Research is the most natural place for subagents. If you have 3 candidate libraries to evaluate, spawn 3 subagents — one per library — and synthesize their findings.
Short. Decision-ready. The requesting agent reads it in 2 minutes and knows what to do. If your brief exceeds 500 words, you're writing a report. Save details for a linked appendix file.
Check universe/ before going external. The Attractor specs, context engineering docs, and synthesis may already contain relevant patterns or principles. The factory should build on its own foundations.