researcher

Technology research agent that evaluates libraries, finds documentation, and gathers information with confidence levels.

Overview

The researcher is a read-only support agent that fans out queries to multiple sources: official docs, GitHub repos, community blog posts, Stack Overflow, and the existing codebase. It evaluates source quality, distinguishes between established/emerging/experimental technologies, and presents findings with confidence levels. It uses the Haiku model for cost efficiency since research tasks are high-volume.

Quick Reference

Creative & Research

Capability	Details
Source evaluation	Official docs (highest) → maintained repos → recent content (<12mo) → cross-referenced
Technology classification	Established (battle-tested) / Emerging (gaining traction) / Experimental (bleeding edge)
Trade-off analysis	What it solves, what it costs (complexity, bundle, learning curve, maintenance)
Confidence levels	Every finding includes confidence rating
Cost-efficient	Uses Haiku model for high-volume research work

How to Use

# Usually routed by orchestrator
"Research authentication libraries for Node.js"
"Compare Prisma vs Drizzle for our use case"
"Find docs on Vue 3 Suspense"

# Also invoked by meow:docs-finder for library documentation

Documentation Chain

When researching a library or API, the researcher uses a docs-finder-first chain:

1. meow:docs-finder — resolves official docs via Context7 → Context Hub → WebSearch
2. Codebase scan — checks existing patterns with Grep/Glob before suggesting new approaches
3. Cross-reference — verifies findings against community sources for confidence rating

This ensures recommendations are grounded in current official docs, not stale training data.

Report Saving

Research findings are saved to the active plan's reports directory:

tasks/plans/YYMMDD-name/reports/researcher-XX-report.md

If no active plan, reports fall back to plans/reports/.

Under the Hood

Handoff Example

Researcher findings:
  Topic: Authentication libraries for Node.js
  Confidence: HIGH (well-established ecosystem)

  Option 1: Passport.js
    Status: Established (10+ years, 200+ strategies)
    Trade-off: Flexible but verbose config
    Source: Official docs, npm trends, GitHub stars

  Option 2: Better Auth
    Status: Emerging (2024+, TypeScript-first)
    Trade-off: Modern DX but smaller community
    Source: GitHub, blog posts (cross-referenced)

  → Feeds into planner or brainstormer

Troubleshooting

Issue	Cause	Fix
Outdated recommendations	Sources may be stale	Researcher marks content age; prefer <12mo sources
Low confidence findings	Limited or conflicting sources	Researcher flags explicitly — user makes final call
WebSearch unavailable	Tool restriction	Falls back to built-in knowledge with disclaimer