research-conventions

Research Conventions

The shared layer beneath every skill in this plugin. Each research skill says what to build; this one says what a figure has to carry, how far the evidence lets the language go, what is worth asking before starting, and how periods, windows and returns are computed. It holds those rules so no skill re-derives them: on evidence, judgement, intake and market-data mechanics this layer is the source of truth, and the calling skill owns what its deliverable contains.

Reference files

• Any deliverable that prints a figure, a number with no source, two sources disagreeing, a figure that may be stale, or how densely to cite: .agents/skills/research-conventions/references/evidence.md.
• A valuation, a thesis, a recommendation, a scenario set, or any section that ends in what to do: .agents/skills/research-conventions/references/judgment.md.
• Before asking the user anything at the start of a task, and when deciding whether to ask at all: .agents/skills/research-conventions/references/intake.md.
• Before the first market-data pull of anything that prints a period label, a multiple, a growth rate or a return: .agents/skills/research-conventions/references/market-data-rules.md.
• Choosing how long a deliverable runs, a draft over its length band, or a request for a short version of something already built: .agents/skills/research-conventions/references/depth.md.

Readiness posture

Every deliverable states one posture, once, near the top, in the reader's language. Posture is about inputs, not conviction: a high-conviction view resting on stale inputs is not decision-grade, and saying so is what makes the rest of the artifact usable.

Posture	Holds when	Forced down by
decision-grade	every load-bearing figure is sourced and inside its freshness threshold, the downside is mechanical, and the inputs the recommended action needs are in hand	one load-bearing figure that is stale, unsourced or contested
review-ready	the analysis is complete and sourced, and one check or one input is still open	an unresolved conflict on a load-bearing claim, or a check that fails
screen-grade	coverage or depth is deliberately thin and the artifact says so	a headline conclusion that outruns the coverage behind it
not-ready	a load-bearing claim is unsupported, stale or contested with nothing settling it, and the conclusion rests on it	already the floor for a claim problem; state what would lift it
blocked	an input cannot be obtained at all (a tool failure, an undisclosed metric, a document we do not have)	already the floor; name the missing input and what would unblock it

A posture below decision-grade names the specific figure or input responsible, so the reader can decide whether it matters to them. Posture is read from this table against the current input state, never stepped up or down from a previous value: when an input changes state, re-read the rows. This is the only readiness scale; a skill that needs a finer status for one of its objects labels that object, and the artifact still carries one posture from this table.