Desk research project check

/desk-research-project-check

The passive stop-signal of a research project. It answers one question — has the corpus stopped changing the picture? (theoretical saturation) — and makes a recommendation. It is deliberately passive: it reads, judges, and reports; it never advances the lifecycle and never computes a number. The human decides what to do with the signal.

When to invoke

Inside an existing project folder, on phrasing like "is this project saturated?", "should I keep gathering sources?", "check the stop signal". Run it whenever you want a read on whether more capture is worth it.

What it reads

• synthesis-matrix.md — is its structure still changing? Are recent sources adding new columns, or just filling existing rows?
• memos.md — are load-bearing claims corroborated, or still resting on one or two sources?

The saturation judgment — read by eye, qualitative

Report a qualitative judgment across three questions, read by eye:

1. Is the corpus still changing the matrix structure? New sources that keep introducing new columns mean the picture is still forming. New sources that only confirm existing columns mean the structure has stabilised.
2. Are recent sources adding columns or just confirming? Confirmation without new structure is the saturation signal (grounded theory's theoretical saturation).
3. Are load-bearing claims corroborated? A claim the whole verdict rests on, still single-sourced, is a reason to keep gathering regardless of structural saturation.

Then give a recommendation — "looks saturated; move to synthesize" or "not yet; the cost dimension is still single-sourced — gather more there" — and stop. The human decides.

There is no counter, no score, no metric, no derived number anywhere in this skill. Saturation is a reading of the matrix and memos, not a computed threshold. "Three sources per claim" informs the triangulation rail at synthesis time; it is not a saturation formula this skill evaluates.

The one permitted state write

This skill MAY optionally write a single string — verdict_status — into overview.md's frontmatter (e.g. verdict_status: looks-saturated or verdict_status: keep-gathering-on-cost), as a convenience marker of its last read. That is the only state it is permitted to write.

It NEVER advances phase — it does not move the project from digest to synthesize or anywhere else. Phase progression is human-driven; this skill only recommends. Writing anything other than verdict_status into overview.md is an Ask-first deviation.

What this skill is not

• Not a phase-advancer — it recommends; the human moves the project.
• Not an engine — no counter, score, metric, or saturation threshold; the judgment is qualitative, read by eye (Charter Principle 3).
• Not a synthesis — it reads the digest and reports a stop-signal; it writes no findings and no brief.

Next

Act on the recommendation by hand: keep gathering (back to capture/digest), or move to /desk-research-project-synthesize. This skill changes nothing but the optional verdict_status marker.