Research Orchestrator

Diagnose your research needs, build the optimal skill chain, and guide execution step by step. No external tools — pure routing. Reads research-memory/ status to recommend what to run and when.

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Purpose

Research Orchestrator is the traffic controller for all 8 research skills. It answers:

• What research do I need right now?
• What's already done, and what's missing?
• In what order should I run the skills?
• What's stale and needs refreshing?

This skill never conducts research itself. It reads research-memory/ to diagnose the current state, analyzes the user's request, and produces a step-by-step execution plan pointing to the right skills.

"Doing research without a plan is like shopping without a list — you'll miss what matters and waste time on what doesn't."

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Modes

Mode	When to Use	Behavior
A: Full Research	New brand/product, empty research-memory/	Chain all 8 skills in dependency order
B: Focused Research	Specific question or area needed	Select 1-3 skills based on request
C: Refresh	Existing research is outdated	Re-run stale skills in Refresh mode
D: Validate	Strategy brief exists, need expert check	Run expert-validator only

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Auto-Load Protocol

On every invocation, BEFORE any routing:

1. Check research-memory/ directory
2. If files exist → Read ALL .md files (except README.md)
3. For each file, assess:
   • Exists? — File present with substantive content (not just scaffold headers)
   • Last updated — Extract date from > Last updated: header or research-log.md
   • Richness — Rich (detailed data) / Adequate / Thin (scaffold only)
   • Enrichment status — For competitive-intel.md: which skills have contributed? ([competitor-finder] / [competitor-analyzer] / [competitor-visual])
   • Expert validation — For strategy-brief.md: are [expert-validator] sections populated?
4. Read research-log.md → Extract last execution date per skill
5. Check brand-memory/ (read-only) → If exists, use business context to pre-fill recommendations
6. Build Status Dashboard (see Step 1 below)

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Process

Step 1: Build Status Dashboard

Goal: Show the user exactly where their research stands.

Generate this dashboard from the Auto-Load data:

Research Status Dashboard
══════════════════════════
📊 Market Landscape    : [STATUS] [DATE_INFO]
🏢 Competitive Intel   : [STATUS] [DATE_INFO] [ENRICHMENT_INFO]
👥 Customer Insight    : [STATUS] [DATE_INFO]
💬 Customer Language   : [STATUS] [DATE_INFO]
📋 Strategy Brief      : [STATUS] [DATE_INFO] [VALIDATION_INFO]
📝 Research Log        : [LAST_ENTRY_DATE]

Status values:

• ✅ Complete — File exists with substantive content
• ⚠️ Stale (Xd ago) — Complete but outdated (30+ days)
• ⚠️ Partial — File exists but missing sections (e.g., competitive-intel with finder only)
• ❌ Missing — File doesn't exist or is empty scaffold

Staleness thresholds:

• 30+ days → "Update recommended"
• 90+ days → "Update strongly recommended"
• 180+ days → "Re-research needed"

Always show the dashboard first — it grounds the conversation in facts, not assumptions.

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Step 2: Analyze Request + Select Mode

Goal: Match the user's request to the right mode.

Condition	Auto-Suggest
research-memory/ empty or missing + broad request	Mode A: Full Research
research-memory/ empty + specific area mentioned	Mode B: Focused (but recommend Full)
research-memory/ has data + specific area mentioned	Mode B: Focused
research-memory/ has data + "update"/"refresh"/"renew"	Mode C: Refresh
strategy-brief.md exists + "validate"/"review"/"check"	Mode D: Validate
Ambiguous request	Show dashboard → ask user to choose

Present the suggested mode with a one-line rationale. Let the user confirm or override.

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Step 3: Build Execution Path

Goal: Generate the ordered list of skills to run, respecting dependencies.

Skill Dependency Map

market-scanner ─────────────────────────────────────┐
  → market-landscape.md                              │
                                                     │
competitor-finder ──┬── competitor-analyzer           │
  → competitive-    │     → enriches messaging/CTA   ├─→ research-synthesizer
     intel.md       │                                │      → strategy-brief.md
     (skeleton)     └── competitor-visual             │           │
                          → enriches design/visual    │           ▼
                                                     │    expert-validator
audience-profiler ──── voice-of-customer             │      → enriches strategy
  → customer-           → customer-language.md       │         -brief.md
     insight.md                                      │
                                                     │
                    ────────────────────────────────────┘

Group independence (for Mode A):

• Group 1 (Market): market-scanner — no prerequisites
• Group 2 (Competition): competitor-finder → competitor-analyzer → competitor-visual — sequential chain
• Group 3 (Customer): audience-profiler → voice-of-customer — sequential chain
• Group 4 (Synthesis): research-synthesizer → expert-validator — requires Groups 1+2+3

Groups 1, 2, 3 are independent of each other — user can choose the starting group.

Mode A: Full Research Path

Present the complete chain:

📋 Full Research Plan
═════════════════════
Group 1 — Market
  Step 1: market-scanner → market-landscape.md

Group 2 — Competition
  Step 2: competitor-finder → competitive-intel.md (skeleton)
  Step 3: competitor-analyzer → competitive-intel.md (+messaging)
  Step 4: competitor-visual → competitive-intel.md (+design)

Group 3 — Customer
  Step 5: audience-profiler → customer-insight.md
  Step 6: voice-of-customer → customer-language.md

Group 4 — Synthesis (after Groups 1-3)
  Step 7: research-synthesizer → strategy-brief.md
  Step 8: expert-validator → strategy-brief.md (+expert review)

💡 Groups 1-3 are independent. Which group would you like to start with?

Mode B: Focused Research Path

1. Map user request to target skill(s) using this table:

User Request Pattern	Target Skill	Prerequisite
Market size, trends, structure	market-scanner	None
Find competitors, competitive set	competitor-finder	None
Competitor website, messaging, pricing	competitor-analyzer	competitor-finder ✅
Competitor design, visual, screenshots	competitor-visual	competitor-finder ✅
Target audience, segments, journey	audience-profiler	None
Customer language, reviews, community	voice-of-customer	audience-profiler recommended
Strategy brief, cross-analysis, synthesis	research-synthesizer	market-scanner + competitor-finder + audience-profiler ✅
Expert review, validate strategy	expert-validator	research-synthesizer ✅

2. Check prerequisites against dashboard status
3. If prerequisite missing → include it in the path
4. Present the focused path

Mode C: Refresh Path

1. Read research-log.md → calculate days since last run per skill
2. Identify stale skills (30/90/180-day thresholds)
3. Build refresh path — stale skills only, in dependency order
4. Cascade rule: If a data-producing skill refreshes, downstream synthesis may need refresh too:
   • market-landscape refreshed → flag research-synthesizer for refresh
   • competitive-intel refreshed → flag research-synthesizer for refresh
   • customer-insight refreshed → flag voice-of-customer + research-synthesizer for refresh

Mode D: Validate Path

1. Check strategy-brief.md exists with content
2. If YES → direct to expert-validator
3. If NO → explain prerequisite chain: research-synthesizer first (and its prerequisites if missing)

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Step 4: Guide Execution

Goal: Hand off to the first skill and provide ongoing navigation.

Language: 사용자가 언어를 지정하면 대시보드 및 안내 텍스트를 해당 언어로 출력합니다. 개별 스킬 호출 시 동일한 언어 설정을 전달합니다.

Initial handoff:

▶ Next skill: [SKILL_NAME]
  Purpose: [one-line description]
  Input needed: [what the user should prepare]

Say "[SKILL_NAME] 실행해줘" to start.

After each skill completes:

Provide a transition prompt:

✅ [COMPLETED_SKILL] done → [output_file] saved

▶ Next: [NEXT_SKILL_NAME]
  Purpose: [one-line description]

Continue? Say "[NEXT_SKILL_NAME] 실행해줘"

After all research skills complete:

If strategy-brief.md exists with Next Steps → bridge to marketing execution:

🎯 Research complete! Your strategy brief recommends:
  1. [Next Step 1] → [marketing skill name]
  2. [Next Step 2] → [marketing skill name]
  3. [Next Step 3] → [marketing skill name]

Ready to execute? Pick a next step to start.

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Skill Quick-Reference

Skill	MCP Tool	Output	Time Est.
market-scanner	Perplexity	market-landscape.md	5-10 min
competitor-finder	Perplexity	competitive-intel.md (skeleton)	5-10 min
competitor-analyzer	Firecrawl	competitive-intel.md (+messaging)	10-15 min
competitor-visual	Playwright	competitive-intel.md (+design)	10-15 min
audience-profiler	Perplexity	customer-insight.md	5-10 min
voice-of-customer	Perplexity	customer-language.md	5-10 min
research-synthesizer	None	strategy-brief.md	5-10 min
expert-validator	Task Agents	strategy-brief.md (+expert)	10-15 min

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Quality Checklist

Before presenting a research plan, verify:

• Status Dashboard shown with accurate file states and dates
• Mode selection has clear rationale tied to dashboard state + user request
• Execution path respects all skill dependencies (no skill runs before its prerequisite)
• Each step in the path names the skill, its output, and what the user needs to provide
• Focused mode includes missing prerequisites in the path
• Refresh mode uses staleness thresholds consistently (30/90/180 days)
• Refresh cascade logic applied (upstream refresh → downstream re-synthesis flagged)
• Post-completion bridge to marketing execution skills (when strategy-brief.md has Next Steps)

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Example: Full Research (Abbreviated)

User: "우리 브랜드 리서치를 처음부터 해야 하는데"

Dashboard: 📊 Market Landscape: ❌ Missing · 🏢 Competitive Intel: ❌ Missing · 👥 Customer Insight: ❌ Missing · 💬 Customer Language: ❌ Missing · 📋 Strategy Brief: ❌ Missing

Mode: A — Full Research (research-memory/ is empty)

Plan: market-scanner → competitor-finder → competitor-analyzer → competitor-visual → audience-profiler → voice-of-customer → research-synthesizer → expert-validator

Next: market-scanner — "비즈니스/제품 설명을 알려주시면 시작합니다."

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Example: Focused Research (Abbreviated)

User: "경쟁사 웹사이트 메시징을 좀 더 깊게 분석해줘"

Dashboard: 📊 Market Landscape: ✅ Complete (2025-01-15) · 🏢 Competitive Intel: ✅ Complete (2025-01-12) · ...

Mode: B — Focused (competitor-analyzer targets website messaging) Prerequisite: competitor-finder ✅ already complete

Plan: competitor-analyzer only Post-completion: "competitive-intel.md가 업데이트되었습니다. research-synthesizer로 전략 브리프도 갱신할까요?"

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Example: Refresh (Abbreviated)

User: "3개월 전 리서치인데 업데이트 필요해"

Dashboard: 📊 Market Landscape: ⚠️ Stale (95d) · 🏢 Competitive Intel: ⚠️ Stale (92d) · 👥 Customer Insight: ⚠️ Stale (90d) · 💬 Customer Language: ✅ 45d · 📋 Strategy Brief: ⚠️ Stale (88d)

Mode: C — Refresh (3 files exceed 90-day threshold) Plan: market-scanner (Refresh) → competitor-finder (Refresh) → audience-profiler (Refresh) → research-synthesizer (Refresh) Cascade: Strategy brief refresh needed because 3 upstream sources refreshed.

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What This Skill Does NOT Do

• Conduct research → Use the individual research skills (market-scanner, competitor-finder, etc.)
• Write to research-memory/ → Each skill writes its own output; this skill only reads
• Execute marketing → Use execution skills (brand-voice, copy, SEO, email, etc.)
• Replace skill selection judgment → It recommends; the user decides

Research Orchestrator stays focused on routing — diagnosing what's needed, building the path, and guiding execution.