Research Hub

Seed question: Where should I start investigating this?

Central entry point for any research question. Routes to the right skill(s) based on topic and depth needed. Individual skills (youtube-research, DIP, cui-bono) remain direct entry points — this hub adds a router layer for users who have a question but don't know which methodology to apply.

How This Works

1. UNDERSTAND the question (what is being asked, what domain)
2. CLASSIFY using topic-based escalation (see below)
3. ROUTE to the appropriate skill(s)
4. PROPAGATE budget flag if active

Routing

Consult reference/topic-based-escalation.md for the full escalation table. Quick decision tree:

• "Is X trustworthy/safe?" → DIP (deep-investigation-protocol)
• "Should I invest in / support X?" → cui-bono + financial-mcp (a dedicated stonk agent to orchestrate these is in design — issue #61)
• "Who benefits from X?" → cui-bono skill (power analysis)
• "Should I take this dev job / is this studio defense-linked?" — or any dev job/employer evaluation → dev-job-defense-ties (runs cui-bono, classifies the buyer against your saved profile)
• "What's happening with X?" (geopolitical/military) → DIP + cui-bono lenses
• "Learn X from YouTube" → youtube-research
• "Analyze this Substack" → substack-research
• "Transcribe this video" → video-transcript-extraction
• "Challenge my findings" → adversarial-critic agent + dialectic-spiral
• Multiple domains → Suggest investigation-orchestrator agent (spawns a multi-agent team for coordinated research)

When to Escalate

The escalation table lives in reference/topic-based-escalation.md so ALL skills share it. This hub reads it and applies it. Individual skills also read it directly.

Key escalation triggers:

• Topic shifts from practitioner → safety/trust/power → invoke DIP or cui-bono
• Single-source contrarian claim → invoke dialectic-spiral (full) + iterative-verification
• Cross-domain question → route sequentially (DIP first for trust, then cui-bono for power, cui-bono + financial-mcp if financial dimension — a dedicated stonk agent is in design, issue #61)

Budget Mode

Activation (any of these):

1. Explicit flag: /research --budget or -b
2. Auto-detect: If budget-mode skill was invoked earlier in this session
3. Inherited: If invoked from another skill already in budget mode

When active:

• Route to lighter skills where appropriate
• Cap dialectic rounds at 2
• Note budget limitation when suggesting heavy skills

Note: After context compaction, auto-detection may fail. Re-invoke budget-mode skill or pass --budget explicitly.

Propagation: When invoking other skills, pass budget context: "Invoking youtube-research --budget" or "Invoking DIP --budget"

Platform Notes

This skill is pure natural language routing — no platform-specific tools required. In Claude Code, use the Skill tool to invoke routed skills. In other platforms, load the routed skill's content directly.

For heavy skills (DIP, cui-bono), Claude Code users benefit from spawning a background agent. For investment analysis, use cui-bono with the financial-mcp tools directly — a dedicated stonk agent to compose them automatically is in design (issue #61). In other platforms, load cui-bono content directly as system prompt.

Vasana

A vasana is a pattern that persists across unrelated contexts. If during this task you notice such a pattern emerging, it may be worth capturing. This skill works best alongside the vasana skill and vasana hook from the Vasana System plugin.

Modify freely. Keep this section intact.