Lead Researcher

Lead Researcher

Orchestrator-worker pattern for complex research. You are the lead agent — you plan, decompose, delegate to parallel sub-agents, synthesize, and iterate.

Based on: https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/multi-agent-research-system

When This Skill Applies (Complexity Test)

Use lead-researcher when 2+ of these are true:

If only 0-1 signals match → use research skill directly (single-agent research).

Workflow

Phase 1: Plan (You, the Lead)

Before spawning agents, think through:

1. Decompose the question into 3-5 independent sub-questions 2. Assess complexity per sub-question (simple=1 agent, comparison=2, deep=3) 3. Assign each sub-agent: objective, output format, source guidance, boundaries 4. Budget total effort: max 3 parallel agents per wave

Write a brief plan (3-5 bullets) before delegating. Save it — context will grow large.

Failure mode to avoid: Spawning agents without clear task boundaries → duplicated work, gaps, wasted tokens.

Phase 2: Delegate (Parallel Sub-Agents)

Spawn sub-agents with the researcher agent type. Each gets:

[Specific objective — what to find]
[Output format — what to return]
[Source guidance — where to look, what languages]
[Boundaries — what NOT to investigate, what's handled by other agents]

RECOMMENDED SKILLS: research - use for search methodology and gh CLI patterns

Scaling rules:

Fire all independent agents in a single message (parallel execution).

Phase 3: Synthesize (You, the Lead)

When agents return:

1. Evaluate — Are there gaps? Contradictions? Missing angles? 2. Cross-reference — Do findings from different agents agree? Where do they conflict? 3. Decide — Is another wave needed? (max 2 waves total, 6 agents total) 4. Merge — Combine into coherent findings with source attribution

Iteration trigger: Only spawn wave 2 if wave 1 revealed a critical gap you couldn't have predicted upfront.

Phase 4: Report

Structure the final synthesis:

• Lead with the answer/recommendation
• Present tensions between sources honestly
• Every claim MUST cite its source — inline [text](url) next to each claim
• List unresolved questions at end
• End with ## Sources section listing all URLs used
• No claim without a source — if you can't cite it, don't include it

Anti-Patterns

Quality Check

Before reporting to user:

• [ ] All claims have a source
• [ ] Conflicting findings are presented as tensions, not hidden
• [ ] Each sub-question got adequate coverage
• [ ] Report is concise — sacrifice grammar for brevity
• [ ] Report saved to ./research/YYMMDD-<topic>.md