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Agent skill

Spectre Research

by joenandez in joenandez/spectre

Research a codebase to answer a question — fan out read-only agents (finder/analyst/patterns, web-research for 3rd-party), then synthesize evidence-backed findings into a saved research doc with…

MITAuto-check passedResearch & Science

Install Spectre Research

skills CLI
$ npx skills add joenandez/spectre --skill spectre-research -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install joenandez/spectre spectre-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/joenandez/spectre.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/plugins/spectre/skills/spectre-research .claude/skills/spectre-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
spectre-research
GitHub stars
164
Token cost
~1.1k tokens
SKILL.md length
477 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
26
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Research a codebase to answer a question — fan out read-only agents (finder/analyst/patterns, web-research for 3rd-party), then synthesize evidence-backed findings into a saved research doc with…

  • Works in 5 steps: Immediate reply first — acknowledge the… → Read named files fully in main context… → Decompose the question into areas; track… → …
  • The user asks how does X work
  • SKILL.md covers Inputs, Working set, Feature root contract and Method / guardrails, plus 3 more sections
  • Calls gh; reaches github.com

What it does

Spectre Research is an agent skill from joenandez/spectre. Research a codebase to answer a question — fan out read-only agents (finder/analyst/patterns, web-research for 3rd-party), then synthesize evidence-backed findings into a saved research doc with file:line citations. Use when the user asks "how does X work", "where does Y live", "investigate/research Z before planning", or wants a written research artifact. Do NOT use to write code, plan a feature (use spectre-plan), or for a one-off lookup that needs no saved doc.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.1k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Research & Science, covering Citation management. The repository describes itself as: Spectre is a battle-tested 6 stage agentic engineering workflow for building complex, production-ready features. You stay in the loop for the decisions that matter. Your agents…. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • The user asks how does X work
  • Where does Y live
  • Investigate/research Z before planning
  • Wants a written research artifact

Example prompts

  • “how does X work”
  • “where does Y live”
  • “investigate/research Z before planning”
  • “/spectre-research”

Workflow steps

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

  1. Immediate reply first — acknowledge the topic and state the feature name/root the workflow will use (or ask for the topic) with NO tool…
  2. Read named files fully in main context (no limit/offset) before decomposing.
  3. Decompose the question into areas; track with TodoWrite. Strategy: locate → analyze promising hits → fan out parallel reads. Tell each…
  4. Wait for ALL agents before synthesizing. Compress each return to a 1–2K summary; do not write per-agent scratch files.
  5. Synthesize: prefer live-code findings as source of truth; connect findings across components; cite concrete path:line; answer the user's…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 931c9e8. 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

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • gh

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

  • Network

    Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

    • github.com

    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

Spectre Research loads about 1.1k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 121 tokens; SKILL.md has 477 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~121
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.1k

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 joenandez/spectre at commit 931c9e8, republished under its MIT licence (© joenandez). 477 words, ~1,065 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/spectre-research/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
spectre-research
description
Research a codebase to answer a question — fan out read-only agents (finder/analyst/patterns, web-research for 3rd-party), then synthesize evidence-backed findings into a saved research doc with file:line citations. Use when the user asks "how does X work", "where does Y live", "investigate/research Z before planning", or wants a written research artifact. Do NOT use to write code, plan a feature (use spectre-plan), or for a one-off lookup that needs no saved doc.
user-invocable
true
disable-model-invocation
true

research

Codebase research: spawn parallel read-only agents, synthesize their findings into one evidence-based document. Live code is the source of truth.

Inputs

  • Research question / topic (from $ARGUMENTS). If absent, send an immediate reply asking for it and stop.
  • Optional explicit managed feature name/root or an artifact beneath one.
  • Any files the user names (tickets, docs, JSON).

Working set

  • FEATURE_ROOT = .spectre/features/<feature-name>/, resolved from the input or chosen autonomously below. Read branch/commit/repo metadata via tool at write time, never inline earlier.
  • Agents (read-only, run in parallel): @spectre:finder (where code lives), @spectre:analyst (how it works), @spectre:patterns (similar implementations), @spectre:web-research (3rd-party docs — instruct it to return LINKS). Context7 MCP only if the user explicitly asks for library docs.

Feature root contract

  • Reuse a managed FEATURE_ROOT only when explicit/current-thread evidence ties it to this work (physical directory wins; never branch/recency/lifecycle/scans); distinct work ignores ambient roots. Otherwise, including on collision, standalone MUST first load and follow @skill-spectre:spectre-feature-root through DONE; orchestrated calls escalate. Keep writes beneath it and pass it unchanged.

Method / guardrails

  1. Immediate reply first — acknowledge the topic and state the feature name/root the workflow will use (or ask for the topic) with NO tool calls in the opening turn.
  2. Read named files fully in main context (no limit/offset) before decomposing.
  3. Decompose the question into areas; track with TodoWrite. Strategy: locate → analyze promising hits → fan out parallel reads. Tell each agent what to find, not how to search.
  4. Wait for ALL agents before synthesizing. Compress each return to a 1–2K summary; do not write per-agent scratch files.
  5. Synthesize: prefer live-code findings as source of truth; connect findings across components; cite concrete path:line; answer the user's actual question with evidence.
Show full SKILL.md (199 more words)Show less

Outputs + DONE

Write one research doc to {FEATURE_ROOT}/research/{topic}_{MMDDYY}.md; the research doc begins below its title with Feature: <feature-name> and Feature Root: .spectre/features/<feature-name>. DONE when:

  • YAML frontmatter: date (ISO+tz), git_commit, branch, repository, topic, tags, status: complete, last_updated (YYYY-MM-DD), last_updated_by. Multi-word keys snake_case.
  • Sections, in order: 1 Title # Research: {topic} · 2 Metadata header · 3 Research Question · 4 Summary · 5 Detailed Findings (by area, with file:line) · 6 Code References · 7 Architecture Insights · 8 Related Research · 9 Open Questions.
  • Every claim is backed by a path:line reference; live code prioritized over docs.
  • Permalinks: if on main/master OR the commit is pushed, replace local refs with https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/blob/{commit}/{file}#L{line} (gh repo view --json owner,name); else keep local refs.
  • A concise findings summary (with key file refs) is presented to the user.

Handoff

HandoffDetails
🧭 Current phaseDone
📦 What was just doneResult
▶️ Proposed next stepRender resolved action.

Follow-ups update the same doc (metadata + timestamped section); close with one next-step pointer: Plan with resolved research document path or further research.

Escalate-If

  • The question is too broad/ambiguous to scope agents → ask one clarifying question before fanning out.
  • Findings contradict each other or the live code can't be reached → surface the conflict in Open Questions rather than guessing.

© joenandez, 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 plugins/spectre/skills/spectre-research of joenandez/spectre.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 931c9e8

Compare with similar skills

Spectre 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.

Spectre Research compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Spectre Research this skilljoenandez/spectre164—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Content Research Writerweapp-tailwindcss/weapp-tailwindcss1.9k25 repos~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Systematic Review ScreenerImbad0202/academic-research-skills51k—~8.4kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
NetworkxzLanqing/codex-claude-academic-skills4.7k15 repos~3.2kAutomated safety check: PassBSD-3-Clause
Literature Reviewneflibata-feng/MyArxiv-Agent12620 repos~5.9kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Openalex Databaseneflibata-feng/MyArxiv-Agent12612 repos~3kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence

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Categories

Questions about Spectre Research

What does Spectre Research do?

Research a codebase to answer a question — fan out read-only agents (finder/analyst/patterns, web-research for 3rd-party), then synthesize evidence-backed findings into a saved research doc with…. Spectre Research is an agent skill from joenandez/spectre. Research a codebase to answer a question — fan out read-only agents (finder/analyst/patterns, web-research for 3rd-party), then synthesize evidence-backed findings into a saved research doc with file:line citations.

When should I use Spectre Research?

Spectre Research fits situations like: the user asks how does X work; where does Y live; investigate/research Z before planning; wants a written research artifact.

How do I install Spectre Research in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add joenandez/spectre --skill spectre-research -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/spectre/skills/spectre-research in joenandez/spectre) into .claude/skills/spectre-research in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Spectre Research in Codex?

Run `npx skills add joenandez/spectre --skill spectre-research -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/spectre/skills/spectre-research in joenandez/spectre) into .agents/skills/spectre-research in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Spectre 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 joenandez/spectre --skill spectre-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/spectre-research, .gemini/skills/spectre-research, .github/skills/spectre-research and .opencode/skills/spectre-research in your project.

What does Spectre Research need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Spectre Research needs the command-line tools its instructions call (gh).

Does Spectre Research access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. In commands or code: github.com; the agent is likely to contact it when it follows the instructions. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Spectre 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 Spectre Research use?

Spectre 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 Spectre Research use?

About 1.1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 4.3k 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 Spectre Research?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Spectre Research: Content Research Writer (weapp-tailwindcss/weapp-tailwindcss, 1.9k stars), Systematic Review Screener (Imbad0202/academic-research-skills, 51k stars), Networkx (zLanqing/codex-claude-academic-skills, 4.7k stars) and Literature Review (neflibata-feng/MyArxiv-Agent, 126 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Spectre Research?

joenandez (a GitHub user) maintains it in joenandez/spectre, which has 164 GitHub stars. The repository holds 26 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 2, 2026.

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