queelius/status

Research Status

Show the current state of an in-flight research-agent run. Read-only: this skill never modifies the .research/ directory or relaunches the agent.

Step 1: Locate .research/

Use the Glob tool to confirm .research/ exists in the working directory. If absent, tell the user there is no research run here and suggest /research-agent:research to start one.

Step 2: Read core state files

Read in order (Read tool):

1. .research/goal.md for the original goal and eval script path
2. .research/state.md for sub-problem statuses, hypothesis statuses, and current focus
3. .research/log.md for the last 10 cycle entries (read the full file if it is short, otherwise tail with Bash: tail -200 .research/log.md)

Step 3: Inventory artifacts

Use Glob and Bash to count:

• attempts/*/notes.md: total attempts; list the most recent 3 with their slugs and one-line summaries
• findings/*: confirmed results promoted out of attempts/
• synthesis.md: present means the run has concluded (note this prominently)

Step 4: Format the report

Output a structured summary:

# Research Status: {one-line goal}

## Goal
{verbatim from goal.md, trimmed if very long}

## Run state
- Total cycles logged: N
- Last cycle: {timestamp} in {phase}
- Current focus: {from state.md}
- Concluded: yes (synthesis.md present) | no

## Sub-problems
| Status | Count |
|--------|-------|
| open | N |
| in-progress | N |
| resolved | N |
| abandoned | N |

Currently focused sub-problem: {description}

## Hypotheses
| Status | Count |
|--------|-------|
| untested | N |
| confirmed | N |
| refuted | N |
| inconclusive | N |

## Recent activity
- {date} Cycle N: {hypothesis snippet} via {modality} -> {pass/fail}
- ... (last 5 cycles)

## Eval trend
- Latest score: X (or "self-evaluation")
- Best score: Y
- Trend over last 5 cycles: improving | flat | declining

## Attempts inventory
- {N} attempts total
- {M} findings promoted
- Most recent attempts:
  - attempts/{NNN}-{slug}: {one-line note}
  - ...

Step 5: Suggest next actions

End the report with a brief next-actions block based on the run state:

• If concluded (synthesis.md present): point the user to .research/synthesis.md
• If active and progressing: suggest /research-agent:resume to continue
• If stalled (3+ failed cycles in last 5, or flat/declining eval trend): suggest /research-agent:synthesize to lock in current results, or note that the researcher should pivot strategies on next resume
• If just started (under 3 cycles): note that it is too early to evaluate trend