Agent skill · research science · sundial-org
research-tracker
Manage autonomous AI research agents with SQLite-based state tracking. Use when spawning long-running research sub-agents, tracking multi-step investigations, coordinating agent handoffs, or monitoring background work. Triggers on: research projects, sub-agent coordination, autonomous investigation, progress tracking, agent oversight.
Why this skill is useful
Provides a CLI tool with specific commands and integration patterns for managing autonomous research agents that the AI wouldn't generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires go, julians-research-tracker installed locally. About 2k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-03-07. 639 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Research Tracker CLI tool for managing autonomous research agents with append-only state, instruction queues, and oversight. Prerequisites Or: go install github.com/1645labs/julians-research-tracker/cmd/research@latest Quick Start Start a research project As the research agent — log progress Check status (from main session or heartbeat) Send instructions to running agent Agent checks for instructions Commands Reference Command Purpose --------- --------- init <id> -o "..." Create project with objective list [--status active\ done\ all] List projects (includes needsattention flag) show <id> Project details + recent events stop <id> Stop project, send STOP instruction archive <id> Archive completed project log <id> <event> [--step N] Log event (STEPBEGIN, CHECKPOINT, BLOCKED, etc.) heartbeat <id> Update alive timestamp block <id> --reason "..." Mark blocked, needs input complete <id> Mark done status <id> [--json] Current state summary context <id> [--last N] Truncated context for agent prompts instruct <id> "text" Send instruction pending <id> List unacked instructions ack <id> [--all] Acknowledge instructions check-stop <id> Exit code: 0=stop, 1=continue audit <id> --verdict pass\ drift Log audit result Event Types STARTED, STEPBEGIN, STEPCOMPLETE, CHECKPOINT, BLOCKED, UNBLOCKED, AUDITPASS, AUDITDRIFT, HEARTBEAT, DONE, STOPPED, TIMEOUT Integration Pattern Spawning a research agent Agent loop (in spawned agent) Attention Detection research list --json includes needsattention: true when: Last event is BLOCKED Has unacked URGENT or STOP instructions Heartbeat stale (>5 min since last HEARTBEAT event) Last audit was AUDITDRIFT Database SQLite at ~/.config/research-tracker/research.db (WAL mode, append-only events). Run research db migrate after install. Schema auto-migrates on first use.
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills sundial-org/research-tracker