Summary
The /research skill renders both an Artifacts section and a References section. They carry essentially the same content in different formats: Artifacts is a structured registry (link, retrieved date, trust class, summary, evidence status), and References is a flat bibliography line for the same source. Every artifact ends up restated.
Example
In docs/research/on-call-engineer-research.md, each of A1-A44 appears once in Artifacts (line 184) and a second time in References (line 540) as a one-line citation.
For example, A1 appears as:
Artifacts (line 188):
### A1: Michael Nygard — *Release It! Second Edition* (Pragmatic Programmers, 2018)
- **Link / location:** https://pragprog.com/titles/mnee2/release-it-second-edition/ ...
- **Retrieved:** 2026-05-28
- **Trust class:** web
- **Summary:** ...
- **Evidence status:** corroborated by A2, A3, A6, A7
References (line 542):
- **A1** — Michael Nygard, *Release It! Second Edition*, Pragmatic Programmers, 2018. https://pragprog.com/titles/mnee2/release-it-second-edition/. Retrieved 2026-05-28.
The References line carries no information that is not already in the Artifacts entry.
Where it comes from
plugin/skills/research/SKILL.md — Step 6 (Compile the Artifacts) and Step 9 (Render the Report) both mandate the two sections and say both are "always rendered, even for a minimal run".plugin/skills/research/references/research-report-template.md — defines ## Artifacts (line 84) and ## References (line 112).
Open questions for whoever picks this up
- Should References be removed and Artifacts kept as the single registry, or the other way around, or should the two be merged into one section?
- Should the SKILL.md instructions and the template both change, or only the template?
- Should existing reports in
docs/research/ be updated to the new format, or left as-is?
Severity
Low. Cosmetic redundancy with no functional impact, but it lengthens every research report and creates two sources of truth for the same registry.
Summary
The
/researchskill renders both an Artifacts section and a References section. They carry essentially the same content in different formats: Artifacts is a structured registry (link, retrieved date, trust class, summary, evidence status), and References is a flat bibliography line for the same source. Every artifact ends up restated.Example
In
docs/research/on-call-engineer-research.md, each of A1-A44 appears once in Artifacts (line 184) and a second time in References (line 540) as a one-line citation.For example, A1 appears as:
Artifacts (line 188):
References (line 542):
The References line carries no information that is not already in the Artifacts entry.
Where it comes from
plugin/skills/research/SKILL.md— Step 6 (Compile the Artifacts) and Step 9 (Render the Report) both mandate the two sections and say both are "always rendered, even for a minimal run".plugin/skills/research/references/research-report-template.md— defines## Artifacts(line 84) and## References(line 112).Open questions for whoever picks this up
docs/research/be updated to the new format, or left as-is?Severity
Low. Cosmetic redundancy with no functional impact, but it lengthens every research report and creates two sources of truth for the same registry.