Agent skill

Goal-Driven Finance Research

by HKUDS in HKUDS/Vibe-Trading

Runs multi-step finance research as a tracked goal with acceptance criteria and linked evidence, strictly for research and never for placing trades.

MITAuto-check passedBusiness, Finance & HR

Install Goal-Driven Finance Research

skills CLI
$ npx skills add HKUDS/Vibe-Trading --skill research-goal -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install HKUDS/Vibe-Trading research-goal --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/HKUDS/Vibe-Trading.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/agent/src/skills/research-goal .claude/skills/research-goal && 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
research-goal
GitHub stars
35k
Token cost
~813 tokens
SKILL.md length
425 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
89
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Runs multi-step finance research as a tracked goal with acceptance criteria and linked evidence, strictly for research and never for placing trades.

  • Works in 6 steps: Call start_research_goal with a concise… → Include 3-5 acceptance criteria when the… → Before continuing an existing task, call… → …
  • Comparing several strategies or assets where each conclusion needs supporting evidence
  • SKILL.md covers When to Attach a Goal, Tool Flow, Criteria Template and Evidence Rules, plus 2 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

This skill attaches a research-only goal to larger finance tasks, such as comparisons, audits and thesis reviews, that need several criteria before a conclusion is credible or that continue across turns. It uses a set of goal tools: one to start the goal with a short objective and usually three to five acceptance criteria, one to read the current goal, one to add evidence, and one to update the status once every required criterion has been audited.

Evidence is added after each market-data lookup, backtest, document read, web source or reasoning step, linked to a criterion, and kept short and concrete. Artifact-backed evidence is preferred, with fields such as run ID, artifact path, source provider, symbol universe, benchmark and data date included when known, and the exact tool call ID copied from the result it came from. Completion needs verified evidence from an existing run or an allowed artifact with a matching hash, and live trading instructions are refused or reframed as research. The excerpt is cut off before the completion rules.

When your agent uses it

  • Comparing several strategies or assets where each conclusion needs supporting evidence
  • Running a thesis review that will continue across several conversation turns
  • Auditing a finished piece of finance research against its stated criteria

Example prompts

  • “Start a research goal to compare a momentum and a value strategy on US large caps, with evidence for each criterion.”
  • “Pick up the existing research goal and tell me which criteria still lack evidence.”
  • “Audit my sector thesis against the goal criteria and mark it complete only if the evidence checks out.”

Requirements

  • The research goal tools provided by the host runtime

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Call start_research_goal with a concise research-only objective.
  2. Include 3-5 acceptance criteria when the user provided enough context.
  3. Before continuing an existing task, call get_research_goal.
  4. After a market-data lookup, backtest, document read, web source, or manual reasoning step, call add_goal_evidence.
  5. Link evidence to a criterion using criterion_id or criterion_index.
  6. When all required criteria have been audited, call update_research_goal_status.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 8e43007. 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

Goal-Driven Finance Research loads about 813 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 40 tokens; SKILL.md has 425 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~40
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~813

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 HKUDS/Vibe-Trading at commit 8e43007, republished under its MIT licence (© HKUDS). 425 words, ~813 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/research-goal/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
research-goal
description
Goal-driven finance research workflow: attach a research-only objective, track criteria, and add evidence while avoiding live trading execution.
category
flow

Goal-Driven Finance Research

Use this skill when a user asks for a multi-step finance research task, comparison, audit, thesis review, or "keep working until the answer is supported." The goal runtime is for research only. Never use it to place, submit, or execute trades.

When to Attach a Goal

Start a goal when the task has any of these traits:

  • It needs multiple criteria before a conclusion is credible.
  • It compares strategies, assets, regimes, or evidence sources.
  • It may continue across turns or require a final audit.
  • The user asks for "long driven task", "goal", "审计", "对比", "研究结论", or similar.

Do not start a goal for a tiny one-shot answer unless the user explicitly asks.

Tool Flow

  1. Call start_research_goal with a concise research-only objective.
  2. Include 3-5 acceptance criteria when the user provided enough context.
  3. Before continuing an existing task, call get_research_goal.
  4. After a market-data lookup, backtest, document read, web source, or manual reasoning step, call add_goal_evidence.
  5. Link evidence to a criterion using criterion_id or criterion_index.
  6. When all required criteria have been audited, call update_research_goal_status.

Criteria Template

Use this shape when the user did not provide criteria:

  • Define the research-only thesis and symbol universe.
  • Collect fresh market, benchmark, or artifact evidence.
  • Compare alternatives or a control baseline.
  • Record caveats, contradictions, and the non-advice boundary.
Show full SKILL.md (206 more words)Show less

Evidence Rules

  • Keep evidence short and concrete.
  • Prefer artifact-backed evidence when a tool produced a run or file.
  • Include run_id, artifact_path, source_provider, source_type, symbol_universe, benchmark, and data_as_of when known.
  • For evidence backed by one specific tool result, copy that result's exact tool_call_id into add_goal_evidence; do not shorten, alias, or invent it.
  • evidence_id values such as ev_... identify rows in the research-goal ledger. They are used by goal audits and are never grounding source refs; do not write ev_...::field in a figures declaration.
  • tool_call_id preserves provenance but does not verify goal completion by itself. Completion still needs verified evidence from an existing run_id or an allowed artifact_path with a matching sha256 hash.
  • Do not mark live trading instructions as evidence. Refuse or reframe them as research-only analysis.

Completion Rules

  • Use update_research_goal_status(status="complete") only after every required criterion has an audit row.
  • Satisfied audit rows must cite verified evidence_ids.
  • Use status="blocked" or status="insufficient_evidence" when evidence is missing, stale, contradictory, or not verifiable.
  • Use status="cancelled" only when the user explicitly asks to end or discard the goal.

Response Style

Tell the user what the goal is tracking only when it helps. Do not flood the answer with ledger details. Lead with the research conclusion, then mention which criteria remain unresolved.

© HKUDS, MIT. 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 agent/src/skills/research-goal of HKUDS/Vibe-Trading.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 8e43007

Compare with similar skills

Goal-Driven Finance 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.

Goal-Driven Finance Research compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Goal-Driven Finance Research this skillHKUDS/Vibe-Trading35k—~813Automated safety check: PassMIT
China Market Open Data SearchOpenSenseNova/SenseNova-Skills5.7k—~954Automated safety check: NotesMIT
Private Company Researchxbtlin/ai-berkshire17k—~5.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Longbridge Earningshelsome/folio2711 repos~2.5kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Consulting Analysisbytedance/deer-flow84k4 repos~8.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Management Deep Divexbtlin/ai-berkshire17k—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Goal-Driven Finance Research

What does Goal-Driven Finance Research do?

Runs multi-step finance research as a tracked goal with acceptance criteria and linked evidence, strictly for research and never for placing trades. This skill attaches a research-only goal to larger finance tasks, such as comparisons, audits and thesis reviews, that need several criteria before a conclusion is credible or that continue across turns. It uses a set of goal tools: one to start the goal with a short objective and usually three to five acceptance criteria, one to read the current goal, one to add evidence, and one to update the status once every required criterion has been audited.

When should I use Goal-Driven Finance Research?

Goal-Driven Finance Research fits situations like: comparing several strategies or assets where each conclusion needs supporting evidence; running a thesis review that will continue across several conversation turns; auditing a finished piece of finance research against its stated criteria.

How do I install Goal-Driven Finance Research in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add HKUDS/Vibe-Trading --skill research-goal -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (agent/src/skills/research-goal in HKUDS/Vibe-Trading) into .claude/skills/research-goal in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Goal-Driven Finance Research in Codex?

Run `npx skills add HKUDS/Vibe-Trading --skill research-goal -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (agent/src/skills/research-goal in HKUDS/Vibe-Trading) into .agents/skills/research-goal in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Goal-Driven Finance 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 HKUDS/Vibe-Trading --skill research-goal -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/research-goal, .gemini/skills/research-goal, .github/skills/research-goal and .opencode/skills/research-goal in your project.

What does Goal-Driven Finance Research need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Goal-Driven Finance Research is instructions for the agent only. Our summary lists: The research goal tools provided by the host runtime.

Does Goal-Driven Finance 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 Goal-Driven Finance 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 Goal-Driven Finance Research use?

Goal-Driven Finance Research is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Goal-Driven Finance Research use?

About 813 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.3k 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 Goal-Driven Finance Research?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Goal-Driven Finance Research: China Market Open Data Search (OpenSenseNova/SenseNova-Skills, 5.7k stars), Private Company Research (xbtlin/ai-berkshire, 17k stars), Longbridge Earnings (helsome/folio, 271 stars) and Consulting Analysis (bytedance/deer-flow, 84k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Goal-Driven Finance Research?

HKUDS (a GitHub organization) maintains it in HKUDS/Vibe-Trading, which has 35,163 GitHub stars. The repository holds 89 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 10, 2026.

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