RECON

Deep research. Persistent results. Never research the same thing twice.

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Usage

/recon [topic]                     - Research a topic in depth
/recon --quick [topic]             - Quick overview (5-10 minutes)
/recon --deep [topic]              - Comprehensive investigation (30+ minutes)
/recon --compare [A] vs [B]       - Comparative analysis

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What This Is

RECON is a research skill that produces thorough technical reports and automatically saves them to a local knowledge base. Next time you (or Claude) need the same information, it's already there — no redundant web searches, no lost research.

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The Research Process

1. Check Existing Knowledge

Before researching, RECON checks the knowledge base for existing reports on the topic. If a relevant report exists, it surfaces that first and asks if an update is needed.

2. Conduct Research

Uses Claude's built-in technical-research-agent to:

• Decompose the topic into subtopics
• Search multiple sources (web, documentation, repos)
• Synthesize findings into a structured report
• Identify code examples and implementation patterns

3. Save Results

Reports are saved as markdown files to the knowledge base directory:

knowledge/
  research/
    2024-01-15_react-server-components.md
    2024-01-20_rust-vs-go-backends.md
    2024-02-01_vector-databases-comparison.md
  index.json    # Master index for search

4. Index for Future Retrieval

The report is indexed with:

• Title, topic, date
• Key technologies mentioned
• Summary for quick scanning
• Tags for semantic search

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AUTO-EXECUTE Protocol

When this skill is invoked:

1. Parse the topic from the user's message
2. Check knowledge base — search knowledge/index.json for existing research
3. If found: Display the existing report summary, ask if an update is needed
4. If not found: Launch the technical-research-agent (Task tool, subagent_type: technical-research-agent)
5. Save the report to knowledge/research/YYYY-MM-DD_<topic-slug>.md
6. Update the index with metadata
7. Summarize findings to the user

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Report Structure

Every RECON report follows this format:

# [Topic]

## Summary
One-paragraph executive summary.

## Key Findings
- Finding 1
- Finding 2
- Finding 3

## Deep Dive
Detailed analysis with code examples where relevant.

## Comparison (if applicable)
| Feature | Option A | Option B |
|---------|----------|----------|
| ...     | ...      | ...      |

## Recommendations
What to use and why, given the context.

## Sources
Links to documentation, articles, repos referenced.

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Knowledge Base Setup

Create the following directory structure:

knowledge/
  research/      # Research reports (markdown)
  references/    # Quick reference docs
  index.json     # Master index

The index.json schema:

{
  "entries": [
    {
      "id": "k-001",
      "title": "React Server Components Deep Dive",
      "file": "research/2024-01-15_react-server-components.md",
      "date": "2024-01-15",
      "tags": ["react", "rsc", "frontend", "server-components"],
      "summary": "One-line summary for quick scanning"
    }
  ]
}

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When to Use

• Evaluating a new framework or library
• Comparing architectural approaches
• Understanding a technology before prototyping
• Any research you don't want to repeat next week

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Prerequisites

• Claude Code with Task tool access (the technical-research-agent is a built-in Claude Code subagent — no external setup needed)
• File system access for knowledge base storage
• Web search access for current information (WebSearch tool must be available)

Note: The technical-research-agent is part of Claude Code itself, not an external service. If you have Claude Code, you have the agent.

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Research once. Remember forever.