Agent skill
research
This skill should be used when the user asks to "find papers", "search academic literature", "find citations", "literature search", "find research on", "what does the literature say about", or any request to search for academic papers across multiple sources.
Install this agent skill to your Project
npx add-skill https://github.com/edwinhu/workflows/tree/main/skills/research
SKILL.md
Academic Literature Search
Multi-source academic search with deduplication, DOI resolution, and journal filtering.
Always read ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../google-scholar/domain-knowledge.local.md before presenting results.
IRON LAW: Always Use the Script
NEVER run the sources manually in sequence. ALWAYS use the research script. This is not negotiable.
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/research.py" "<query>" [--n 50] [--min-citations N]
The script parallelizes all sources and DOI resolution automatically. Doing it manually serializes everything and triples wall time.
Sources
| Source | Tool | Strength | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
scholar lookup |
Keyword/citation-ranked | Finance classics, foundational papers | ✅ |
consensus CLI |
Empirical corpus, sorted by citations | Accounting/finance empirical literature | ✅ |
| Paperpile bib | Personal library (My Library.bib) |
Papers already in your collection | ✅ |
scholar search |
NL semantic | Law reviews, conceptual literature | opt-in (--scholar-search) |
scholar search is opt-in because it shares rate limits with scholar lookup and 429s when run in parallel. Add --scholar-search when you specifically want semantic/NL results.
Output Schema
The script outputs a JSON array. Each paper has:
{
"title": "...",
"authors": ["..."],
"year": 2023,
"journal": "...", // original journal label (may be SSRN)
"journal_resolved": "...", // CrossRef-resolved journal (present if SSRN label was resolved)
"doi": "...",
"citations": 150,
"takeaway": "...",
"url": "...",
"sources": ["lookup", "consensus"] // all sources that returned this paper
}
LLM Review Step (After Script)
After running the script, read ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../google-scholar/domain-knowledge.local.md and cross-reference each paper's effective journal (use journal_resolved if present, else journal) against the trusted list:
- ★ = journal matches trusted list
- Papers in
sources: ["lookup", "consensus"](multiple sources) = higher confidence - Papers from
bibsource = already in user's library (flag with 📚)
Presentation Format
★ [Title](url) — Authors (Year), *Journal*, N citations [sources]
> Takeaway: ...
📚 ★ [Title](url) — Authors (Year), *Journal* [in your library]
> Takeaway: ...
Trusted papers first (sorted by citations desc), then non-trusted in a collapsed table.
Red Flags — STOP If You Catch Yourself:
| Action | Why Wrong | Do Instead |
|---|---|---|
| Running sources manually instead of using the script | Serializes work, triples wall time | python3 research.py "<query>" |
Using mcp__consensus__search |
Rate-limited to 3 results | Script uses CLI binary automatically |
| Presenting before reading domain-knowledge.local.md | User expects ★ signals | Read it first, always |
Using journal field when journal_resolved is present |
SSRN label hides real venue | Always prefer journal_resolved |
Common Patterns
# Standard search
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/research.py" "mandatory disclosure"
# With citation floor
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/research.py" "poison pill" --min-citations 50
# More results from Consensus
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/research.py" "corporate governance" --n 100
# Disable streaming (wait for all sources, output pretty-printed JSON)
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/research.py" "mandatory disclosure" --no-stream
Streaming Mode (default)
Without --stream, the script waits for all four sources before emitting anything — Consensus takes ~60s, so fast sources (bib <1s, Scholar ~10s) sit idle.
With --stream, the script emits one NDJSON line per event as it happens:
{"event": "source", "source": "bib", "papers": [...]}
{"event": "source", "source": "scholar-lookup", "papers": [...]}
{"event": "source", "source": "scholar-search", "papers": [...]}
{"event": "source", "source": "consensus", "papers": [...]}
{"event": "final", "papers": [...]}
sourceevents: raw papers from each source as it completes (may have duplicates across sources)finalevent: deduplicated + CrossRef-resolved unified set
Process source events as they arrive to present early results; use final for the complete deduplicated list. Pass --no-stream for batch mode (pretty-printed JSON after all sources complete).
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