Research council

Research Council — Scholarly Dual to the Review Council

The Research Council is a 5-member multi-agent system for systematic knowledge acquisition, domain exploration, and epistemic mapping. It is the input side of the formalization pipeline, while the Review Council is the output side.

Research Council → Specification → Implementation → Review Council
    (what to prove)                                    (is the proof good?)

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Routing

• USE FOR / DO NOT USE FOR / TRIGGERS — see the description field in the YAML frontmatter above. Same dispatch contract is restated here for in-skill discovery.
• USE FOR: orchestrating a 5-member Lean 4 research council (Α / Β / Γ / Δ / Ε) — RESEARCH loop (dual to RALPH), Rumsfeld epistemic mapping (known/unknown × known/unknown), cross-disciplinary research domains (Mathlib / AI / Physics / Bio / Social), session protocol, literature synthesis, self-improvement meta-loop.
• DO NOT USE FOR: single proof or single literature lookup (use @lean-research); proof review (use @lean-review-council); synthesis-only emission (use @research-synthesis-engine); proof itself (use @lean-proof).
• TRIGGERS: research council, RESEARCH loop, Rumsfeld matrix, epistemic mapping, research session, literature synthesis council, cross-disciplinary research.

Workflow

1. Frame the question (handbook Part 3 — locate it on the Rumsfeld matrix).
2. Convene the 5-member RESEARCH loop (handbook Part 2 — Reframe-Explore-Synthesize-Evaluate-Archive-Refine-Connect-Handoff).
3. Run the session per handbook Part 5; pull literature via handbook Part 6.
4. Emit the session report + handoff: to @research-synthesis-engine for the final product, to @lean-zettelkasten for archive, to @lean-review-council for any artifact-touching findings (Hub-Spoke topology).
5. Update the project snapshot (handbook Part 9) on session close.

Recovery & STOP

• STOP if a question maps to known-knowns only — do not convene the council; delegate to @lean-research.
• STOP if the RESEARCH loop iterates 3+ times without Γ (Synthesize) producing distinct candidates — escalate to @epistemic-discovery-engine for a discovery mode shift.
• STOP if cross-disciplinary handoff (handbook Part 4) lands on a domain with no @-skill — open a research-needed Zettel and pause.

Handoffs

• Predecessors: agent:gateway, skill:lean-research, skill:epistemic-discovery-engine.
• Successors: skill:research-synthesis-engine, skill:lean-zettelkasten, skill:lean-review-council, skill:lean-research.

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Detailed reference

Full methodology content (Parts 1–9) lives in references/research-council-handbook.md. Load that file when the skill is convened; the SKILL.md only carries the dispatch contract and a parts index.

Section	Topic	Covers
Part 1	The Five Research Members	Α / Β / Γ / Δ / Ε research personas
Part 2	The RESEARCH Loop (Dual to RALPH)	Reframe-Explore-Synthesize-Evaluate-Archive-Refine-Connect-Handoff
Part 3	Epistemic Mapping (Rumsfeld Matrix)	Known/unknown × known/unknown quadrants
Part 4	Cross-Disciplinary Research Domains	Mathlib / AI / Physics / Bio / Social
Part 5	Research Session Protocol	Session lifecycle + report template
Part 6	Literature Synthesis Protocol	Source vetting + citation graph
Part 7	Integration with Other Skills	Cross-skill dispatch matrix
Part 8	Self-Improvement	Meta-loop
Part 9	Project Current State & Proven Methodology	Snapshot at last review

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See also

• ../../references/research-council-handbook.md — Full handbook (extracted from this skill)
• ../research-synthesis-engine/SKILL.md — Successor
• ../lean-zettelkasten/SKILL.md — Successor
• ../lean-review-council/SKILL.md — Successor
• ../lean-research/SKILL.md — Successor