⏩ thunderkit

Opinionated multi-model delegation for very large repos.

skill

tk-research

Use to investigate unknowns before planning a big change: fans parallel research lanes (library options, prior art, pitfalls, API behavior) across cheap wide models, each writing a focused finding, consolidated into RESEARCH.md.

Install: npx skills add thunderock/thunderkit -s tk-research -g


tk-research — parallel investigation of the unknowns

The parallel-thunderkit analogue of GSD's research step. When a plan would otherwise rest on guesses — how a library actually behaves, what prior art exists, where the pitfalls are — tk-research fans parallel research lanes across the wide/cheap executor models, each with a fresh context and a narrow question, then consolidates.

Model class: executors (the wide, cheap ones — research is breadth). Each lane writes its own finding; the orchestrator only collects and dedupes.

Procedure

  1. Turn the BRIEF.md/SPEC.md unknowns (the unknown rows from tk-grill) into discrete

research questions — one per lane, disjoint.

  1. Dispatch each as its own lane (portable dispatch, resume id captured — same contract as

tk-execute), on a wide model, with a fresh context.

  1. Each lane returns a finding: the answer, the evidence (a link, a file, a probe result), and a

confidence. unknown is a valid finding — it goes back to the user.

  1. Consolidate into RESEARCH.md: findings grouped by question, contradictions preserved (two

sources disagreeing is signal), each with its evidence and confidence.

Output — .thunderkit/RESEARCH.md

Decision-driving findings with evidence, consumed by tk-plan — options and rejected alternatives in the plan should cite these, not restate assumptions.

Boundary

Research is source-backed and read-only — it investigates, it does not implement. A finding without evidence is a guess; label it unverified rather than presenting it as fact.