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bmad-research

Research
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Conducts market, competitive, domain, and technical research using live web sources, producing a cited research-report.md to inform BMAD planning decisions. Use when the user says: - "research [topic/market/technology]" - "competitive analysis" or "who are the competitors" - "market size" or "market landscape" - "technical research" or "evaluate [technology/framework]" - "domain research" or "industry analysis" - "what does the market look like" - "find out about [technology/space]" - "I need research before we plan" - "gather information on [topic]" Supports three modes: Create (new research), Update (refresh existing report with new sources), Validate (cross-check claims in an existing report against live sources). Output lands in bmad-output/ as a cited research-report.md ready for downstream planning skills (business-analyst, product-manager, system-architect).

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/aj-geddes/claude-code-bmad-skills/blob/HEAD/bmad-planning-orchestrator/skills/bmad-research/SKILL.md

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BMAD Research

Conducts structured, cited research across three modes to feed BMAD planning workflows. Output is a research-report.md in bmad-output/, ready for handoff to planning skills.

Step 0 — Clarify Intent

Before searching, confirm:

  1. Mode — Create / Update / Validate (default: Create)
  2. Research type — Market | Competitive | Technical | Domain (may combine)
  3. Topic — What is being researched?
  4. Output destination — Default: bmad-output/research-report.md

If project-context.md exists, read it first (bmad-output/project-context.md) for scope constraints.

Step 1 — Plan the Research

Use the source-type strategy guide to pick sources by research type:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/bmad-research/scripts/research-sources.sh

Run it (Bash) to print the guide, then sketch a query plan:

  • 3–5 targeted WebSearch queries per research type
  • Specific URLs to WebFetch (industry reports, competitor sites, docs)
  • Triangulation goal: each key claim backed by 2+ independent sources

Track progress with TodoWrite.

Step 2 — Execute Research

Market Research

  • Search: market size, TAM/SAM/SOM, growth CAGR, key trends, growth drivers
  • Sources: Statista, Grand View Research, CB Insights, SEC filings, industry reports
  • Quantify everything possible: dollar values, percentages, time frames

Competitive Research

  • Search: top competitors, feature comparisons, pricing, user reviews, funding
  • Sources: G2/Capterra (reviews), Crunchbase (funding/size), company IR pages, product documentation, Reddit/HN community sentiment
  • Build a feature comparison matrix

Technical Research

  • Search: framework benchmarks, adoption rates, community health, known trade-offs
  • Sources: Official docs, GitHub stars/issues, npm/PyPI stats, State of JS/CSS, ThoughtWorks Radar, Stack Overflow surveys
  • Evaluate: maturity, ecosystem, licensing, long-term viability

Domain Research

  • Search: regulatory landscape, industry standards, key players, domain glossary
  • Sources: Government databases, standards bodies, academic papers (Google Scholar, arXiv), trade publications

Citation discipline: for every factual claim, record source URL + access date. When a claim cannot be verified across 2+ sources, mark it [UNVERIFIED].

Step 3 — Update Mode

If mode is Update, read the existing report first. Then:

  1. Identify sections with stale data (>6 months old, or marked [UNVERIFIED])
  2. Re-run targeted searches for those sections only
  3. Append a "Last Updated" entry per section
  4. Increment the report version

Step 4 — Validate Mode

If mode is Validate:

  1. Extract all quantitative claims from the existing report
  2. Spot-check each claim with a fresh WebSearch
  3. Mark each claim: [VERIFIED], [CONTRADICTED source: …], or [UNVERIFIED]
  4. Append a "Validation Summary" section noting overall confidence

Step 5 — Write the Report

Use the template:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/bmad-research/templates/research-report.template.md

Fill all sections. Sections irrelevant to the research type may be omitted (mark as N/A). Write the completed report to:

bmad-output/research-report.md   # or a user-specified path

Required sections regardless of mode:

  • Executive Summary with key findings and bottom line
  • Research Scope (in/out of scope, time frame)
  • Methodology (sources used, tools, limitations)
  • Gaps & Opportunities
  • Recommendations (planning actions, not implementation actions)
  • Full source bibliography (Appendix B) with URLs and access dates

Step 6 — Handoff

After writing the report, tell the user:

  • The output path
  • The 3 most important findings in plain language
  • Which BMAD planning skill should consume this report next:
    • Market/Competitive → business-analyst or product-manager
    • Technical → system-architect
    • Domain → business-analyst

Record the research decision in bmad-output/decision-log.md:

## Research: [Topic] — [Date]
- Mode: [Create/Update/Validate]
- Types: [Market/Competitive/Technical/Domain]
- Key finding: [one sentence]
- Report: bmad-output/research-report.md
- Next skill: [skill name]

Subagent Strategy

For broad research covering multiple types simultaneously, fan out parallel agents:

Agent 1 — Market Agent

Read project-context.md, then conduct market research on [topic]:
TAM/SAM/SOM, growth rates, key trends. Write findings to
bmad-output/research-scratch/market.md with full citations.

Agent 2 — Competitive Agent

Read project-context.md, then research top 3-5 competitors for [topic]:
features, pricing, strengths/weaknesses, user sentiment. Write findings to
bmad-output/research-scratch/competitive.md with full citations.

Agent 3 — Technical/Domain Agent

Read project-context.md, then research technical landscape for [topic]:
technology options, ecosystem health, standards. Write findings to
bmad-output/research-scratch/technical.md with full citations.

After all agents complete, synthesize scratch files into the final report using the template. Delete scratch files after synthesis.

Part of the BMAD Planning & Orchestrator plugin — a Claude Code harness for the BMAD Method by the BMAD Code Organization (https://github.com/bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD). Implements the spirit of bmad-market/domain/technical-research. All methodology credit belongs to the BMAD Code Organization.