/research

name: research
description: This skill should be used when the user asks to "research", "fact-check", "check the history", "is this accurate", "research notes", "sources", "historical accuracy", "technical accuracy", "how would this really work", "verify a detail", "interview an expert", "plan a site visit", "expert review", or needs to investigate and record the real-world facts a story relies on and the chapters that use them.

Research

Overview

Investigate the real-world facts a story depends on and keep them in `research/` notes: the question, a search plan, the findings with a citation for each, how confident the finding is, and the chapters that rely on them. Research is active work, not only a ledger: form precise questions, go to primary sources where they exist, interview people and visit places, and record what was found in a form a later fact-check can retrace.

The CLI tracks each note's status (`open`, `verified`, `disputed`), its `used-in` chapters, and the optional `accuracy`, `confidence`, `method`, `risk`, and `reviewed-by` fields. It checks the chapter links, warns when a final chapter still rests on research that is open or disputed, and warns when a risky note reaches a final chapter without a qualified reviewer.

Prerequisites

A story project with `story.md` in the root. The `research/` folder and its registry are created by the first `story add research`.

When to Use

• A chapter depends on history, science, law, medicine, a trade, a real

place, or any detail a knowledgeable reader could check

• The user asks whether something is accurate
• Before marking a chapter `final` in historical, technical, or

contemporary fiction

• NOT for invented world facts (use `worldbuilding`) or story-internal

continuity (use `revision-continuity`)

Workflow

1. Open a note

story add research "Tidal bore timing" --used-in chapter-03 \
  --accuracy must-be-accurate --method fact --confidence low

Fill the note's `## Question` with what the story needs to get right, in one or two sentences. Set the fields that describe the note:

• `accuracy` - how closely the prose must match reality:

`must-be-accurate` (a checkable real fact the plot or setting relies on), `blended` (real facts deliberately mixed with invention), or `invented` (a made-up fact recorded here for consistency). Invented notes need no sources and never trigger the open-research warning.

• `method` - where the knowledge comes from: `fact` (desk research),

`reading` (a book or paper read for background), `interview`, `site-visit`, or `expert-review`.

• `confidence` - `high`, `medium`, or `low`; how sure the current findings

are. Start at `low` and raise it as sources agree.

• `risk` - a list, when getting it wrong could harm a reader, a real person,

or the author: `legal`, `medical`, `weapons`, `safety`, `cultural`, `defamation`, `technical`. Pass `--risk` once per value.

2. Plan the investigation

1. Break the question into the specific things the prose asserts or implies ("Could she walk from the station to the docks in 20 minutes in 1953?" rather than "1950s Liverpool"). 2. Write a short `## Search Plan` in the note: the terms to search, the archives, records, or reference works to try, and the people who would know. Mark which would be primary sources (records, first-hand accounts, official data, the place itself) and which secondary. 3. Decide what "enough" looks like: one authoritative primary source, or two independent secondary sources that agree.

3. Research

1. Use the research tools available in the session (web search or fetch, documents the user provides). If none are available, give the user the search plan and ask them to supply sources. 2. Record each finding under `## Findings` with its citation beside it: author or institution, title, date, and the page, section, or URL. When a finding rests on exact wording, quote it and give the page or URL, so the claim can be retraced without repeating the search. Add every source to the `sources` frontmatter list, one full citation or URL per entry, with `--source` on `story add` or by editing the file. 3. Set `confidence` from the evidence: `high` for a primary source or independent agreement, `medium` for one good secondary source, `low` for anything recalled, inferred, or from a single weak source. 4. **Never present unverified knowledge as verified.** A fact recalled without a source stays `status: open`. Only set `status: verified` when every finding the chapters rely on has a source. Set `status: disputed` when sources disagree, and record both sides. 5. For interviews and site visits, prepare questions and consent first and record notes in the note body; see `references/interviews-and-site-visits.md`.

4. Flag risk; never advise

Notes with any `risk` value need a qualified human reviewer (a lawyer, clinician, weapons or safety specialist, cultural reader, or subject engineer, as fits) before the chapters that use them are final. Record the reviewer in `reviewed-by` as a name or role once they have read the passage. `reviewed-by` is a list with no `story add` flag; edit the note's frontmatter by hand:

reviewed-by:
  - "Dr A. Patel, A&E consultant"

Collect facts and flag concerns, but **never give legal, medical, or safety advice yourself**, and never treat your own research as the review. Portrayals of real, living people carry defamation risk; route those, and sensitivity or authenticity reads, through the `editorial-review` skill.

5. Connect it to the story

1. List every chapter that relies on the note in `used-in`. A chapter not written yet is fine (`chapter-09` before it exists), but `story links` still reports a typo of an existing chapter (`chapter-1` beside `chapter-01`) or `chapter-00` as missing. 2. Under `## Story Use`, record how the prose uses the facts and any deliberate departu