---
name: research-workflow-coordination
description: Use when coordinating multiple stages of a research project across questions, evidence gathering, analysis, writing, and deliverables.
---

# Coordinate a research workflow

Determine the user's objective, current stage, deliverables, available materials, constraints, and authority for actions. Inventory existing artifacts before proposing new ones. Map dependencies: for example, an analysis depends on data and a specified method, while a conclusion depends on results. Separate independent work from tasks blocked by missing information.

Create a proportionate sequence with concrete outputs, acceptance checks, owners when known, and decision points. Proceed with authorized work that does not depend on unresolved inputs; request only information needed for blocked steps. Use available specialist tools or skills when their capabilities fit, but verify access and do not promise execution by a tool that is unavailable. Track the provenance of evidence, data versions, assumptions, and citations as work moves between stages.

For each stage record completed actions and their actual evidence, outstanding work, and material uncertainty. Preserve the distinction between a plan, preliminary analysis, verified result, and submitted or published deliverable. Avoid invented milestones, collaborators, approvals, external searches, or outcomes. Respect the user's instructions and obtain authorization for external actions when required.

Deliver the requested artifact or progress record with dependencies and next decisions. If a tool, source, permission, or input prevents completion, state precisely what was not done and what would unblock it; do not treat a plan as completed research.

For a multi-stage project, use [the lifecycle guide](references/lifecycle.md) to select outputs and gates appropriate to the request. A gate records what is needed to proceed and whether it has actually been met; it is not an automatic request for approval. Reuse existing records, scale them to the work, and do not create every suggested artifact for a small task. If the work is interrupted or handed off, leave a concise, actionable state record linking the actual artifacts and their versions, evidence, unresolved decisions, blockers, and next authorized action.

When coordinating separately installed skills or MCP tools, use the host's supported discovery and invocation mechanisms. Where a persistent handoff is useful, the optional external handoff checker documented in [draft setup](../../docs/DRAFT-SETUP.md) can identify recorded dependency and availability gaps. Its results are advisory and based on supplied claims; check actual host access and outcomes separately. Do not copy external instructions or assume a preflight registers or invokes a capability.