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Official agent skill

Purchase Research

by anthropics in anthropics/commerce-agents

Teaching a customer how to choose before any candidates appear, when they ask what matters in a category, how two approaches to it differ, or where to begin.

OfficialApache-2.0Auto-check passed

Install Purchase Research

skills CLI
$ npx skills add anthropics/commerce-agents --skill purchase-research -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install anthropics/commerce-agents purchase-research --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/anthropics/commerce-agents.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/shopping-agent/skills/purchase-research .claude/skills/purchase-research && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
purchase-research
GitHub stars
3.2k
Token cost
~966 tokens
SKILL.md length
583 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
16
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

Teaching a customer how to choose before any candidates appear, when they ask what matters in a category, how two approaches to it differ, or where to begin.

  • SKILL.md covers Ask once or not at all, Where the criteria and the…, Shape of the answer and Scope
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Purchase Research is an agent skill from anthropics/commerce-agents, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Teaching a customer how to choose before any candidates appear, when they ask what matters in a category, how two approaches to it differ, or where to begin. Not needed once the customer has named the thing they want, however considered the purchase (that is search work), nor for outfitting a space or an event (planning-goals).

Its SKILL.md is about 970 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

The repository describes itself as: Reference blueprint for building shopping and merchant agents with Claude. Examples in retail, commerce, telecom, and entertainment included. The licence is Apache-2.0.

Example prompts

  • “/purchase-research”

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit fd4d592. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Purchase Research loads about 966 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 87 tokens; SKILL.md has 583 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~87
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~966

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from anthropics/commerce-agents at commit fd4d592, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© anthropics). 583 words, ~966 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/purchase-research/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
purchase-research
description
Teaching a customer how to choose before any candidates appear, when they ask what matters in a category, how two approaches to it differ, or where to begin. Not needed once the customer has named the thing they want, however considered the purchase (that is search work), nor for outfitting a space or an event (planning-goals).

Purchase research

Below, "category" means a kind of whatever this store sells: products, stays, plans, or seating.

The customer has a category in mind and no criteria yet. Teach the criteria from the store's own guide, then set what the store carries against them. The choice, and anything that touches the cart, stays with the customer.

Ask once or not at all

  • When the deciding facts are open (who it is for, how many, what for, a firm budget), spend one turn on two or three short questions in one message, each with its likely answers as chips; ask only what the profile you were given leaves open. This intake happens once.
  • Whatever comes back closes intake: answers, a request to get on with it, or a question of their own. Research on what you have and carry each still-missing fact into the answer as a stated assumption.
  • When the request already names the people, the purpose, and the limits, skip the questions and research.
  • The customer sees either the questions or the answer; do not describe the intake decision or the research work.

Where the criteria and the products come from

  • Open every research turn with one round of calls: search_policies for the store's buying guide on the category, search_products for what it carries, and one or two web_search calls on the category where that tool is registered. Follow with get_product_details on the few candidates the criteria single out.
  • Read the guide even for a familiar category; it is the advice the store puts its name to. Your own knowledge of the category stands in only when no guide comes back.
  • Use web material for the category side only (criteria, terminology, how the trade-off works), restated in your own words. It says nothing about any catalog product and is no grounds for naming a store, brand, or product outside this catalog.
  • List in sources what you retrieved, the store's guides and any web pages used, and nothing when neither came back. Leave out a criterion none of the retrieved guides or records support.
Show full SKILL.md (239 more words)Show less

Shape of the answer

  • After an intake turn, answer whole: the criteria and the store's options against them in one turn.
  • For a broad ask with no intake, answer in two steps: present_guide with three to five sections of one criterion each and chips for saying which criteria weigh most, then the shortlist next turn, filtered by their choice. Apply a later steer to the same candidates without sending the criteria again.
  • For a narrow ask whose wording already fixes the top criterion or two, answer in one turn: a compact criteria section, then the options against those criteria, in present_comparison for two to four real candidates and present_products otherwise.
  • Show the store's real position. Present a category with one option as the one item it carries, with chips that name it; say when the guide's advice points at something the catalog lacks; report an out-of-stock candidate as a gap and recommend it to nobody.
  • Name the pick with the criterion that decided it, in one clause. Prose covers the recommendation, the assumption you made, and the one caveat that matters; the components carry the rest.

Scope

  • Research turns read and recommend. Write to the cart or to memory only when the customer asks, under the standing rules.
  • Where the category borders on health, safety, or a licensed profession, keep the criteria about which product to buy.
  • Add a purchase chip only once the customer has seen the criteria.

© anthropics, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in shopping-agent/skills/purchase-research of anthropics/commerce-agents.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit fd4d592

Compare with similar skills

Purchase Research next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Purchase Research compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Purchase Research this skillanthropics/commerce-agents3.2k—~966Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Customizeanthropics/claude-for-legal9.6k4 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Customizeanthropics/claude-for-legal9.6k3 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Customizeanthropics/claude-for-legal9.6k3 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Customizeanthropics/claude-for-legal9.6k3 repos~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Customizeanthropics/claude-for-legal9.6k3 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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More from anthropics/commerce-agents

All 16 skills in this repo

  • Commerce Evals

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  • Commerce Merchant Operations

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    The reference merchant agent, covering its flows, staged changes and host approval, metrics grounding, the analysis delegate, store memory, components, and marketplace rules.

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  • Commerce Prompt Caching

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Questions about Purchase Research

What does Purchase Research do?

Teaching a customer how to choose before any candidates appear, when they ask what matters in a category, how two approaches to it differ, or where to begin. Purchase Research is an agent skill from anthropics/commerce-agents, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Teaching a customer how to choose before any candidates appear, when they ask what matters in a category, how two approaches to it differ, or where to begin.

How do I install Purchase Research in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add anthropics/commerce-agents --skill purchase-research -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (shopping-agent/skills/purchase-research in anthropics/commerce-agents) into .claude/skills/purchase-research in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Purchase Research in Codex?

Run `npx skills add anthropics/commerce-agents --skill purchase-research -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (shopping-agent/skills/purchase-research in anthropics/commerce-agents) into .agents/skills/purchase-research in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Purchase Research in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add anthropics/commerce-agents --skill purchase-research -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/purchase-research, .gemini/skills/purchase-research, .github/skills/purchase-research and .opencode/skills/purchase-research in your project.

What does Purchase Research need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Purchase Research is instructions for the agent only.

Does Purchase Research access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Purchase Research safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Purchase Research use?

Purchase Research is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Purchase Research use?

About 966 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.9k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Purchase Research?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Purchase Research: Customize (anthropics/claude-for-legal, 9.6k stars), Customize (anthropics/claude-for-legal, 9.6k stars), Customize (anthropics/claude-for-legal, 9.6k stars) and Customize (anthropics/claude-for-legal, 9.6k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Purchase Research?

anthropics (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in anthropics/commerce-agents, which has 3,198 GitHub stars. The repository holds 16 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 2, 2026.

Source: anthropics/commerce-agents on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.