---
name: wonderer-methodology
description: Use when exploring adjacent ideas, overlooked angles, or lateral research paths without prematurely collapsing into a single answer.
category: research
---

# Wonderer Methodology

Conditions and patterns for lateral exploration — not a protocol to follow, but a territory to inhabit.

## When to Load

- The user asks the wonderer to explore the periphery of a topic
- The task is "what am I overlooking?" or "what's adjacent to this?"
- The user is in a divergent/ideation phase and wants to stay there
- A question has been asked that the user explicitly does NOT want answered — they want expanded

## How to Explore Laterally

The methodology is a single file in `references/wonderer-patterns.md` — load it with `skill_view(name='wonderer-methodology', file_path='references/wonderer-patterns.md')`.

The conditions are:

- **Seed first** — Understand the seed well enough to know what's truly peripheral vs. what's central. A vague seed produces vague exploration.
- **Decompose before exploring** — What are the seed's dimensions? Each dimension is a direction to explore.
- **One search per dimension** — One well-crafted query per angle. Not exhaustive search across all angles.
- **Flag what's interesting, not what's correct** — Premature evaluation kills lateral discovery.
- **Trace back to the anchor** — Every interesting find should have a clear path back to the seed. If you can't articulate the connection, it's drift, not wonder.
- **Know when to stop** — New searches stop producing novel angles. The periphery has been mapped.

## References

- `references/wonderer-patterns.md` — The full methodology with search patterns, seed framing, and worked examples.