What kind of agents does the Research skill deploy?

It spawns several specialized agents including an Intelligence Gatherer, Pattern Extractor, Web Researcher, Git Historian, and Risk Analyst.

What is the APEX Research skill used for?

It is used as the first phase of development to gather all necessary intelligence, including codebase patterns, git history, and technical risks, before creating an implementation plan.

How does the ambiguity gate work?

If a task description is too vague, the skill will stop and ask the user specific clarifying questions to prevent wasted research effort and ensure accurate results.

Does this skill modify my source code?

No, the research skill primarily reads your codebase and creates or updates markdown task files in the .apex directory to document its findings.

Can I use it with JIRA or Linear tickets?

Yes, the skill can parse ticket IDs via MCP to fetch requirements and automatically generate a research-backed task file.

APEX Research Intelligence

Name: APEX Research Intelligence
Author: benredmond

bybenredmond

Productivity & Workflow

Orchestrates parallel AI agents to conduct deep codebase analysis, pattern extraction, and risk assessment for new development tasks.

About

APEX Research is the foundational phase of the APEX workflow, designed to eliminate technical ambiguity before implementation begins. It automates the intelligence-gathering process by spawning specialized sub-agents that simultaneously analyze git history, extract existing implementation patterns, perform web research for documentation, and identify architectural risks. The skill synthesizes these findings into a centralized task file, providing developers with a comprehensive 'Intelligence Report' that includes complexity metrics and technical adequacy scores, ensuring every coding task is backed by high-context research.

Key Features

Parallel agent orchestration for multi-dimensional codebase research
Ambiguity detection and prompt optimization for vague task requirements
Comprehensive risk assessment and technical adequacy gating for complex tasks
Automated extraction of project-specific implementation patterns with source references
Deep Git history analysis to identify regressions and previous ownership
0 GitHub stars

Use Cases

Performing impact analysis for major refactors by tracing dependencies and execution flows.
Onboarding to a new repository by identifying established patterns and historical design decisions.
Transforming vague feature requests into structured technical specifications with codebase context.

About

Key Features

Parallel agent orchestration for multi-dimensional codebase research
Ambiguity detection and prompt optimization for vague task requirements
Comprehensive risk assessment and technical adequacy gating for complex tasks
Automated extraction of project-specific implementation patterns with source references
Deep Git history analysis to identify regressions and previous ownership
0 GitHub stars

Use Cases

Performing impact analysis for major refactors by tracing dependencies and execution flows.
Onboarding to a new repository by identifying established patterns and historical design decisions.
Transforming vague feature requests into structured technical specifications with codebase context.