Synthesizing research

Skill bostonaholic/rpikit/skills/synthesizing-research

Consolidate multiple parallel research documents into a single unified report. Produces a self-contained document that a reader with no prior context can understand completely.From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add bostonaholic/rpikit --skill synthesizing-research

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

20 stars20 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

SKILL.md

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Research Synthesis

Consolidate research for: $ARGUMENTS

Purpose

When research is conducted in parallel — multiple agents exploring different aspects of a problem — each produces a separate findings file. This skill combines those files into one self-contained document that a reader with no prior context can understand completely.

Process

1. Locate Research Files

Search for research files related to the topic:

Glob pattern: docs/plans/*-<topic>-*.md
Exclude: *-plan.md, *-research.md (the consolidated output)

If no files are found, ask the user to specify the file paths.

2. Read All Source Files

Read each research file completely. Note:

Key findings from each source
Overlapping or contradictory information
Gaps — topics mentioned but not investigated
Confidence levels stated by each researcher

3. Organize by Theme

Restructure findings by theme, NOT by source. Multiple researchers may have found related information — group it together rather than presenting each researcher's output sequentially.

Themes to look for:

Architecture and design patterns
Data flow and state management
External dependencies and APIs
Security and performance considerations
Testing patterns and coverage
Gaps and open questions

4. Write Consolidated Document

Create the synthesis at: docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-research.md

(Use today's date in YYYY-MM-DD format)

# Research: <Topic> (YYYY-MM-DD)

## Problem Statement

[What is being investigated and why]

## Requirements

[Key requirements gathered from research]

## Findings

### [Theme 1]

[Findings organized by theme, not by source document]

### [Theme 2]

[Continue for each theme...]

## External Research

[Findings from web research with source citations and confidence
assessments]

## Technical Constraints

[Limitations, dependencies, and compatibility concerns]

## Open Questions

[Questions that remain unanswered across all research]

## Recommendations

[Synthesis of all findings into actionable recommendations]

## Sources

| Document | Researcher | Focus Area |
| -------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| [path]   | [agent]    | [scope]    |

5. Validate and Present

After writing the document:

Present a summary of key findings to the user
Note any contradictions or gaps found during synthesis

Quality Criteria

A good synthesis document:

Is self-contained — no prior context required to understand it
Organizes by theme, not by source
Resolves contradictions between sources (or flags them explicitly)
Preserves source citations for external research
Identifies gaps where more research may be needed
Provides actionable recommendations

Anti-Patterns

Do Not	Instead
Copy-paste each researcher's output sequentially	Reorganize by theme
Drop source citations from web research	Preserve all citations
Silently resolve contradictions	Flag them explicitly
Include raw notes or exploration logs	Distill into findings
Assume all findings are equally confident	Note confidence levels