# research-ideation

Guides research ideation from literature grounding and multi-persona brainstorming to ELO ranking and structured research proposals.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 483 installs · ★ 481
- Author: EvoScientist
- License: Apache-2.0 · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/EvoScientist/EvoSkills/tree/HEAD/skills/research-ideation/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-09-30
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/evoscientist-research-ideation

## What it does

The skill turns high-level research targets into detailed research proposals. It begins by reading previous cycles from `/memory/ideation-memory.md` to reuse viable seeds and prune proven dead ends. Next, it collects 30 to 50 academic papers to build a challenge-insight tree. Standard web search is explicitly forbidden here: all paper retrieval must pass through `paper-navigator` scripts to keep findings grounded in real peer-reviewed work.

Idea generation splits into three distinct directions using three personas: Innovator, Pragmatist, and Critic. Each track runs through 3 refinement iterations using strategies like simplification or literature-driven pivots. The resulting champions compete in an ELO tournament, presenting the top three candidates before expanding the winner into a manuscript-quality proposal.

Running this pipeline without `paper-navigator` will halt your workflow immediately, because generic web search tools cannot substitute for academic paper grounding.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add EvoScientist/EvoSkills --skill research-ideation -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/research-ideation/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/research-ideation/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add EvoScientist/EvoSkills --skill research-ideation -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/research-ideation/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add EvoScientist/EvoSkills --skill research-ideation -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/research-ideation/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install EvoScientist/EvoSkills research-ideation
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/research-ideation/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add EvoScientist/EvoSkills --skill research-ideation -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/EvoScientist/EvoSkills --path skills/research-ideation
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/research-ideation/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add EvoScientist/EvoSkills --skill research-ideation -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/EvoScientist/EvoSkills/tree/HEAD/skills/research-ideation/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- extract research opportunities by mapping paper challenges to insights
- generate diverse hypotheses using innovator, pragmatist, and critic personas
- rank competing research concepts using an ELO tournament
- expand a winning research concept into an experiment-ready proposal

## Example prompts
- Help me find a novel research direction in retrieval-augmented generation and run an ideation pipeline.
- Evaluate these three ideas for sparse attention mechanisms and rank them with an ELO tournament.
- Take our top-ranked research direction and expand it into a detailed proposal with a validation plan.

## Source text · SKILL.md · Apache-2.0

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 2794601ec891ceee.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 2794601ec891ceee
````text
---
name: research-ideation
description: "End-to-end research ideation pipeline: literature grounding → multi-track idea generation (3 personas: innovator/pragmatist/critic) → iterative refinement → ELO tournament ranking → update evo-memory (IDE) → user selects direction → expand into manuscript-quality proposal. Use when: user wants to find a research direction, brainstorm ideas, evaluate idea novelty, design a novel solution, rank/compare research ideas, or generate a research proposal. Do NOT use for finding/searching/reading papers (use paper-navigator), literature survey reports (use research-survey), or planning a paper (use paper-planning)."
allowed-tools: "write_file edit_file read_file think_tool execute"
metadata:
  author: EvoScientist
  version: '2.1.2'
  tags: [core, research, ideation, tournament, proposal]
---

# Research Ideation

From research goal to ranked ideas and a detailed proposal.

```
Step 0: Load evo-memory (M_I)
    ↓
Step 1: Define Goal
    ↓
Step 2: Literature Grounding (MUST use paper-navigator scripts)
    ↓
Step 3: Generate Ideas (3 directions × 3 personas)
    ↓
Step 4: Refine Ideas (3 tracks × N iterations)
    ↓
Step 5: ELO Tournament → Present Top-3 to User
    ↓
Step 6: Update evo-memory (IDE)
    ↓
User Selects
    ↓
Step 7: Expand into Proposal
    ↓
Step 8: Validate and Iterate
```

## When to Use

- User wants to find a research direction or brainstorm research ideas
- User wants to evaluate whether an idea is novel or worth pursuing
- User wants to rank or compare multiple research ideas
- User wants to generate a research proposal from an idea

## When NOT to Use

- **Finding/reading papers** → use `paper-navigator`
- **Literature survey report** → use `research-survey`
- **Planning a paper (story design, experiment plan)** → use `paper-planning`

---

## Step 0: Load Prior Knowledge from evo-memory

**Before any ideation begins**, load Ideation Memory (M_I) from prior research cycles:

1. Read M_I at `/memory/ideation-memory.md` (refer to `evo-memory` skill)
2. Select the **top-2 entries** (k_I=2) most relevant to the user's current goal by comparing each entry's Summary and Retrieval Tags against the goal
3. **Feasible directions** from prior cycles → use as seeds in Step 3 (incorporate as candidate research directions alongside new ones; Step 3 still selects exactly 3 directions)
4. **Unsuccessful directions** marked as fundamental failures → use during idea pruning in Step 4 (prune any idea that matches a fundamental failure pattern)
````
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 2794601ec891ceee

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