ln-001-standards-researcher

This skill should be used when:

• Need to research standards and patterns BEFORE Story generation (ensures tasks follow industry best practices)
• Epic Technical Notes mention specific standards requiring documentation (OAuth, OpenAPI, WebSocket)
• Prevent situations where tasks use outdated patterns or violate RFC compliance
• Reusable for ANY skill requiring standards research (ln-220-story-coordinator, ln-300-task-coordinator, ln-510-test-planner, ln-002-best-practices-researcher)

Who calls this skill:

• ln-220-story-coordinator (Phase 3) - research for Story creation
• ln-300-task-coordinator (optional) - research for complex Stories
• ln-510-test-planner (optional) - research for test task planning
• Manual - user can invoke directly for Epic/Story research

The skill follows a 6-phase workflow focused on standards and architectural patterns.

```

Stack Detection → Identify → Ref Research → Existing Guides → Standards Research

```

Phase 0: Stack Detection

Objective: Determine project stack BEFORE research to filter queries.

Detection:

| Indicator | Stack | Query Prefix |

|-----------|-------|--------------|

| .csproj, .sln | .NET | "C# ASP.NET Core" |

| package.json + tsconfig.json | Node.js | "TypeScript Node.js" |

| requirements.txt, pyproject.toml | Python | "Python" |

| go.mod | Go | "Go Golang" |

| Cargo.toml | Rust | "Rust" |

| build.gradle, pom.xml | Java | "Java" |

Process:

1. Check context_store.TECH_STACK if provided → use directly
2. Else: Glob for indicator files in project root
3. Store detected_stack.query_prefix for Phases 2-3

Output: detected_stack = {language, framework, query_prefix}

Skip conditions: If no stack detected → proceed without prefix (generic queries)

---

Phase 1: Identify Libraries

Objective: Parse Epic/Story for libraries and technology keywords.

Process:

1. Read Epic/Story description (provided as input)

- Parse Epic Technical Notes for mentioned libraries/frameworks

- Parse Epic Scope In for technology keywords (authentication, rate limiting, payments, etc.)

- Identify Story domain from Epic goal statement (e.g., "Add rate limiting" → domain = "rate limiting")

1. Extract library list:

- Primary libraries (explicitly mentioned)

- Inferred libraries (e.g., "REST API" → FastAPI, "caching" → Redis)

- Filter out well-known libraries with stable APIs (e.g., requests, urllib3)

1. Determine Story domain:

- Extract from Epic goal or Story title

- Examples: rate limiting, authentication, payment processing, file upload

Output: Library list (3-5 libraries max) + Story domain

Skip conditions:

• NO libraries mentioned in Epic → Output empty Research Summary
• Trivial CRUD operation with well-known libraries → Output empty Research Summary
• Epic explicitly states "research not needed" → Skip

---

Phase 2: MCP Ref Research

Objective: Get industry standards and architectural patterns.

Process:

1. Focus on standards/RFCs:

- Call mcp__Ref__ref_search_documentation(query="[detected_stack.query_prefix] [story_domain] RFC standard specification")

- Example: "C# ASP.NET Core rate limiting RFC standard specification"

- Extract: RFC/spec references (OAuth 2.0 RFC 6749, OpenAPI 3.0, WebSocket RFC 6455)

1. Focus on architectural patterns:

- Call mcp__Ref__ref_search_documentation(query="[detected_stack.query_prefix] [story_domain] architectural patterns best practices")

- Example: "TypeScript Node.js authentication architectural patterns best practices"

- Extract: Middleware, Dependency Injection, Decorator pattern

Output: Standards compliance table + Architectural patterns list

---

Phase 3: MCP Ref Research

Objective: Get industry standards and best practices.

Process:

1. FOR EACH library + Story domain combination:

- Call mcp__Ref__ref_search_documentation(query="[detected_stack.query_prefix] [library] [domain] best practices 2025")

- Call mcp__Ref__ref_search_documentation(query="[detected_stack.query_prefix] [domain] industry standards RFC")

- Example: "C# ASP.NET Core Polly rate limiting best practices 2025"

1. Extract from results (NO CODE - text/tables only):

- Industry standards (RFC/spec references: OAuth 2.0, REST API, OpenAPI 3.0)

- Common patterns (do/don't descriptions, anti-patterns to avoid)

- Integration approaches (middleware, dependency injection, decorators)

- Security considerations (OWASP compliance, vulnerability mitigation)

- Official docs URLs (link to stack-appropriate authoritative sources)

1. Store results for Research Summary compilation

Output: Standards compliance table (RFC/Standard name, how to comply) + Best practices list

---

Phase 4: Scan Existing Guides

Objective: Find relevant pattern guides in docs/guides/ directory.

Process:

1. Scan guides directory:

- Use Glob to find docs/guides/*.md

- Read guide filenames

1. Match guides to Story domain:

- Match keywords (e.g., rate limiting guide for rate limiting Story)

- Fuzzy match (e.g., "authentication" matches "auth.md", "oauth.md")

1. Collect guide paths for linking in Technical Notes

Output: Existing guides list (relative paths from project root)

---

Phase 5: Generate Standards Research

Objective: Compile research results into Standards Research for Story Technical Notes subsection.

NO_CODE Rule: No code snippets. Use tables + links to official docs only.

Format Priority:

```

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐

│ 1. TABLES + ASCII diagrams ← Priority │

│ 2. Lists (enumerations only) │

│ 3. Text (last resort) │

└─────────────────────────────────────┘

```

Output Format (Table-First):

```markdown

Standards compliance:

| Standard | Requirement | How to Comply | Reference |

|----------|-------------|---------------|-----------|

| RFC 6749 | OAuth 2.0 | Use PKCE for public clients | [RFC 6749](url) |

| RFC 6585 | Rate Limiting | Return 429 + Retry-After | [RFC 6585](url) |

Architectural patterns:

| Pattern | When to Use | Reference |

|---------|-------------|-----------|

| Middleware | Request interception | [Official docs](url) |

| Decorator | Cross-cutting concerns | [Official docs](url) |

Existing guides:

• [guide_path.md](guide_path.md) - Brief description

```

Return Standards Research to calling skill (ln-220, ln-310, ln-350)

Output: Standards Research (Markdown string) for insertion into Story Technical Notes subsection

Important notes:

• Focus on STANDARDS and PATTERNS only (no library details - libraries researched at Task level)
• Prefer official docs and RFC standards over blog posts
• Link to stack-appropriate docs (Microsoft docs for .NET, MDN for JS, etc.)
• If Standards Research is empty (no standards/patterns) → Return "No standards research needed"

---

Called by:

• ln-220-story-coordinator (Phase 2) - research for ALL Stories in Epic
• ln-300-task-coordinator (optional) - research for complex technical Stories
• ln-510-test-planner (optional) - research for test infrastructure

Dependencies:

• MCP Ref (ref_search_documentation) - industry standards and patterns
• Glob (scan docs/guides/)

Input parameters (from calling skill):

• epic_description (string) - Epic Technical Notes + Scope In + Goal
• story_domain (string, optional) - Story domain (e.g., "rate limiting")

Output format:

• Markdown string (Standards Research for Technical Notes subsection)
• Format: Standards + Patterns (libraries researched at Task level)

---

Time-box: 15-20 minutes maximum per Epic

Performance:

• Research is done ONCE per Epic
• Results reused for all Stories (5-10 Stories benefit from single research)
• Parallel MCP calls when possible (Context7 + Ref)

Token efficiency:

• Context7: max 3000 tokens per library
• Total: ~10,000 tokens for typical Epic (3-4 libraries)

---

Tools:

• mcp__Ref__ref_search_documentation() - Search best practices and standards
• Glob - Scan docs/guides/ directory

Templates:

• [research_guidelines.md](references/research_guidelines.md) - Research quality guidelines (official docs > blog posts, prefer LTS versions)

---

Version: 3.0.0

Last Updated: 2025-12-23