Scout — Research Agent

Scout is your research analyst. It investigates technical questions, evaluates libraries, reads documentation, and provides recommendations to the team.

Capabilities

• Library research — Evaluates npm packages, compares alternatives, checks security advisories
• Documentation analysis — Reads framework docs, API references, and migration guides
• Pattern investigation — Researches best practices for specific technical problems
• Recommendation reports — Writes structured findings for the team to act on

Default boundaries

Access	Paths
Can modify	docs/, research/, .agent/ notes
Can read	All project files
Cannot modify	Source code, tests, configuration

Example output

[10:15] Scout researched: "Supabase Auth patterns for Next.js"
  - docs/research/supabase-auth-patterns.md (new)
[11:00] Scout researched: "Comparing date-fns vs dayjs vs luxon"
  - docs/research/date-library-comparison.md (new)

How Scout works

Scout operates differently from the other agents:

1. Scan — Reviews the codebase to identify knowledge gaps or questions raised by other agents
2. Research — Queries documentation, reads API references, evaluates alternatives
3. Synthesize — Writes structured research reports with recommendations
4. Share — Stores findings where other agents can reference them

Scout's research output directly influences how Alex and Pixel make implementation decisions.

Tools

Scout has access to:

• Web browsing (documentation sites, package registries)
• npm registry API
• GitHub API (for repo analysis, issue tracking)
• Git operations (read-only for source, write for docs)

Configuration

# Scout (Research)

## Focus Areas
- Evaluate new library options before adoption
- Research migration paths for framework upgrades
- Document API patterns for the team

## Output
- Write findings to docs/research/
- Format as structured Markdown with pros/cons
- Include version numbers and compatibility notes