Research Patterns and Best Practices

Invoke the researcher agent to find patterns, best practices, and security considerations for a feature.

Implementation

Invoke the researcher agent with the user's feature description.

ARGUMENTS: {{ARGUMENTS}}

Use the Task tool to invoke the researcher agent with subagent_type="researcher" and provide the feature description from ARGUMENTS.

What This Does

You describe a feature or technology. The researcher agent will:

1. Search the codebase for similar existing implementations
2. Find official documentation and current best practices
3. Identify security considerations and common pitfalls
4. Recommend libraries, approaches, and patterns

Time: 2-5 minutes (vs 20-30 min full pipeline)

Usage

/research JWT authentication patterns

/research rate limiting with Redis and sliding window

/research full-text search with PostgreSQL vs Elasticsearch

Output

The researcher provides:

• Codebase Patterns: Existing code with file:line references
• Best Practices: Industry standards with authoritative sources
• Security Considerations: Critical security requirements
• Recommendations: Preferred approach with rationale

When to Use

Use /research when you need:

• Quick research without full implementation
• Context before making architecture decisions
• Understanding of existing patterns in your codebase
• Comparison of different approaches

Next Steps

After research, you can:

1. Review findings - Decide if you want to proceed
2. Plan implementation - Use /plan <feature> to design approach
3. Full pipeline - Use /auto-implement <feature> if you want everything done

Comparison

Command	Time	What It Does
/research	2-5 min	Research only (this command)
/plan	3-5 min	Research + planning
/auto-implement	20-30 min	Full pipeline (research → plan → test → implement → review → security → docs)

Technical Details

This command invokes the researcher agent with:

• Model: Sonnet (balanced speed/quality)
• Tools: WebSearch, WebFetch, Read, Grep, Glob
• Permissions: Read-only (cannot modify code)

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Part of: Individual agent commands (GitHub #44) Related: /plan, /auto-implement