benbrastmckie/nvim/skill-books-research

Books Research Skill

Thin wrapper that delegates books research to books-research-agent subagent.

Trigger Conditions

This skill activates when:

• Task type is "books" (or the books:certify sub-route)
• Research involves lean-book authoring, certification, or documentation per

books/convention.md

Execution Flow

Stage 1: Input Validation

Validate task_number exists.

Stage 2 + Stage 3: Preflight Status Update and Postflight Marker

Source skill-base.sh once, then follow @.claude/context/patterns/skill-preflight-flow.md in full for Stage 2 (preflight status update) and Stage 3 (marker creation):

source .claude/scripts/skill-base.sh
padded_num=$(printf "%03d" "$task_number")
skill_name="skill-books-research"
operation="research"

Stage 4a: Memory Retrieval and Literature Detection

Skip memory retrieval if: clean_flag is true (from --clean).

if [ "$clean_flag" != "true" ]; then
  memory_context=$(bash .claude/scripts/memory-retrieve.sh "$description" "$task_type" "$focus_prompt" 2>/dev/null) || memory_context=""
fi

Follow @.claude/context/patterns/lit-stage4a-flow.md in full to resolve --lit and set lit_context, exactly as skill-orchestrate does. This skill supplies the shared block's preconditions: lit_flag, description, orchestrator_mode (default "false" when unset).

Stage 4: Prepare Delegation Context

Include task_context, focus_prompt, metadata_file_path. If memory_context and/or lit_context from Stage 4a are non-empty, include them in the prompt (memory context first, then literature briefing). Do NOT inject an empty block for either.

Stage 5: Invoke Subagent

Use Agent tool with subagent_type: "books-research-agent".

Stage 5b: Self-Execution Fallback

Follow @.claude/context/patterns/skill-self-execution-fallback.md in full. This skill's success status value for that block's write obligation is "researched".

Postflight (ALWAYS EXECUTE)

The following stages MUST execute after work is complete, whether the work was done by a subagent or inline (Stage 5b). Do NOT skip these stages for any reason.

Stage 6: Parse Subagent Return

Read the metadata file from specs/{N}_{SLUG}/.return-meta.json, including memory_candidates.

Stage 7, 7a, 8, 8a, 9: Postflight Status, Memory Candidates, Artifact Linking, Notify, Cleanup

Follow @.claude/context/patterns/skill-postflight-flow.md in full: field_name=**Research**, next_field=**Plan**.

Error Handling

Input Validation Errors

Return immediately if task not found.

Metadata File Missing

Keep status as "researching", report error.

Git Commit Failure

Non-blocking: Log failure but continue.

Return Format

Brief text summary (NOT JSON).