Pilot Research

Skill-based research workflows for AI coding agents. Structured processes for brainstorm, literature review, auto research, write paper and peer review.

Skills

| Skill | Description | | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | pilot-brainstorm | Socratic research plan discussion | | pilot-literature | ArXiv search, paper summarization, wiki building | | pilot-execute | Lead research execution with sub-agent workers | | pilot-write-paper | Draft papers from plans, reviews, and experiment results | | pilot-peer-review | Quality control for research artifacts | | using-pilot-research | Bootstrap skill for new users |

Research Wiki

All artifacts live in a pure markdown wiki (default: .research/ in your project directory). Compatible with Obsidian, VSCode, and git.

.research/
├── papers/          # Paper summaries [[paper-<slug>]]
├── entities/        # People, datasets, tools [[entity-<name>]]
├── concepts/        # Methods, theories, frameworks [[concept-<name>]]
├── queries/         # Saved Q&A results [[query-<topic>]]
├── plans/           # Research plans [[plan-v<N>]]
├── experiments/     # Experiment reports [[exp-<name>]]
└── handoff/         # Agent handoff artifacts [[handoff-<YY-MM-DD>-<skill>-<agent-name>]]

Installation

One-line install

MacOS/Linux/WSL:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nmd2k/pilot-research/main/install.sh | bash

Windows:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nmd2k/pilot-research/main/install.ps1 | iex

Install flags

| Flag | Description | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------ | | --dry-run | Print what would run, do nothing | | --force | Re-install even if already present | | --only <agent> | Install only for a specific agent | | --minimal | Plugins only, no hooks or rule files | | --all | Also write per-repo IDE rule files | | --list | Print supported agents and exit |

Run ./install.sh --help for Unix/WSL flags; see install.ps1 parameters for Windows (-List, -Force, -Only, …).

CLI: pilot

Commands

| Command | Description | | -------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | | pilot init [path] | Initialize a research wiki (default: ./.research/) | | pilot status | Print wiki overview and statistics |

Configuration

Optional .pilot-research.toml in the project root:

wiki_path = ".research"

Without it, the CLI walks up from the current directory looking for .research/.

Examples

pilot init
pilot init ./my-research
pilot status

Note: scripts/init-wiki.sh is deprecated. Use pilot init instead.

Viewing the Research Wiki

The wiki is pure markdown with [[wikilinks]] and YAML frontmatter — compatible with any markdown editor. We recommend Obsidian for the best experience:

1. Open Obsidian
2. Choose "Open folder as vault"
3. Select your .research/ directory
4. Enjoy graph view, backlinks, search, and bidirectional navigation

Uninstallation

To completely remove the CLI, plugins, global rules, and all pilot skills from your configured AI agents, run:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nmd2k/pilot-research/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --uninstall

Contributing

See AGENTS.md for contribution guidelines.

License

MIT