/aide:research — Research Phase (Optional)

Agent: This command is executed by the aide-domain-expert agent.

Fill the brain with durable domain knowledge the synthesizer can later draw from. Run this phase only when the module requires domain expertise the team does not already have — skip it when the domain is already understood.

Checklist

• Confirm research is actually needed. If the user or the brain already has the domain knowledge, stop and go directly to /aide:synthesize
• Identify the domain being researched — name it specifically enough that the brain can file the output under a stable topic
• Check the brain first for existing research on the topic. If coverage is already sufficient, stop — do not re-fetch what the brain already holds
• Gather sources: vault notes, transcripts, external articles, web search, MCP memory stores
• Synthesize findings and persist them to the brain filed by domain (e.g., research/email-marketing/, research/local-seo/), not by project. Domain knowledge is reusable across projects
• If no external brain is available, write findings to a co-located research.aide file next to the intent spec as a fallback. This is not ideal — recommend enabling an external memory store
• Each persisted note should include:
  • Sources with ratings and dates
  • Data points with attribution
  • Patterns observed across sources
  • Conflicts resolved (where sources disagreed, which direction chosen and why)
• Stop when coverage is sufficient for the synthesizer to fill the .aide body sections, not when all sources are exhausted
• Hand off to /aide:synthesize — the strategist (fresh session) will read your research and fill the spec's body sections