Agent skill · research science · sickn33
ii-commons
Deterministic search across arXiv, PubMed/PMC, and US policy corpora with daily freshness cutoffs.
Why this skill is useful
Adds specific commands and workflows for deterministic retrieval across arXiv, PubMed, and US policy corpora that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires node, npm installed locally. Requires commons.ii.inc account access. About 2k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 44,571 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
II-Commons Overview II-Commons provides deterministic retrieval for research agents across arXiv, PubMed/PMC, and supported US policy corpora. Use it when a task needs reproducible search, metadata lookup, full-document Markdown retrieval, or a freshness check before answering with recent evidence. The upstream project publishes a Node.js CLI as @intelligentinternet/ii-commons and a full agent skill at skills/ii-commons/. When to Use This Skill Use when searching arXiv, PubMed/PMC, or supported US policy corpora for evidence. Use when the user asks for latest or recent research and corpus freshness matters. Use when you need stable identifiers, metadata, or full-document Markdown for downstream analysis. Use when comparing evidence across scientific literature and policy documents. How It Works Step 1: Check Corpus Freshness Run cutoff before freshness-sensitive searches: Report the relevant cutoff date before interpreting recent results. Step 2: Search the Right Corpus Use this argv shape. Literal examples can be typed as shown, but when the query comes from a user prompt, pass it as an argument array through the runner API instead of interpolating it into a shell string. Double quotes do not protect against command substitution in generated shell commands. Choose arxiv for preprints and technical research, pubmed for biomedical and clinical literature, and policy for supported US policy corpora. Step 3: Retrieve Metadata or Markdown Use stable identifiers from search results: Build summaries from search results first, then request Markdown when detailed inspection or full-document grounding is needed. Installation Run the CLI with npx: Or install globally: To install the full upstream agent skill, install the skills/ii-commons/ folder from: Best Practices Prefer server-side date filters such as --start and --end for time-bounded arXiv and PubMed searches. Preserve canonical identifiers such as arXiv:<id>, PMID:<id>, PMCID:PMC<id>, and policy:<jurisdiction>:<id>. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills sickn33/ii-commons