Agent skill · research science · deanpeters
autonomous-investigation
The protocol behind every investigation skill. Use when AI research must proceed without you: search-plan gate, Fact/Inference/Assumption labels, confidence stacking, diffable outputs.
Why this skill is useful
Defines a structured protocol for autonomous research that includes evidence labeling and decision support, which the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
About 7k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-07-17. 6,302 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Autonomous Investigation Protocol Purpose Provide the canonical contract for investigation skills — research the AI performs in the world (web search, published data, public filings) while you review the evidence instead of feeding it context. Where workshop-facilitation governs skills that ask you questions one at a time, this protocol governs skills that proceed without you: they budget their questions, show their plan, label every claim, and produce output stable enough to diff against last quarter's run. That last property is the payoff — an investigation honoring this contract can run as an agent task, in a loop, or on a schedule. Input Nothing required — this skill defines the protocol other investigation skills follow. Also useful when invoked standalone: the target of the investigation and, above all, the decision the research should support. Research without a decision is a hobby; every investigation skill asks for the decision because it determines what "just enough" means. Anything supplied with the invocation itself — text after the skill name, a pasted context dump, or an appended ARGUMENTS: line — counts as answers already given. Use it, credit it against the question budget, and don't re-ask. Arriving empty-handed? That works too. The protocol's whole design is to proceed on best-available evidence with labeled assumptions when nobody answers questions. When another skill references this protocol, that skill's Input section governs what to provide. Example invocation: Run an autonomous investigation on [TARGET]'s move into workflow automation — this supports our Q3 roadmap bet on the same space. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills deanpeters/autonomous-investigation