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name: spawn-research-agents description: Use when conducting codebase research to orchestrate specialized agents in parallel for comprehensive investigation.

Spawn Research Agents

Use specialized agents in parallel to research different aspects of the codebase efficiently.

Agent Selection

Choose agents based on research needs:

Always start with locators:

• codebase-locator - Find WHERE files/components are
• thoughts-locator - Find WHAT documentation exists

Then use analyzers on findings:

• codebase-analyzer - Understand HOW specific code works
• codebase-pattern-finder - Find SIMILAR implementations
• thoughts-analyzer - Extract insights from specific docs

Only if user explicitly requests:

• web-search-researcher - External research

Parallel Execution Pattern

Spawn multiple agents at once using multiple Task calls in a single message:

CopyTask(subagent_type="codebase-locator", prompt="Find all authentication files")
Task(subagent_type="thoughts-locator", prompt="Find auth-related documentation")

Then wait for both to complete before spawning follow-up agents.

Research Workflow

1. Decompose: Break research question into specific areas
2. Locate: Use locator agents to find relevant files/docs
3. Analyze: Use analyzer agents on most promising findings
4. Synthesize: Combine all results with file:line references

Example

Research question: "How does authentication work?"

Step 1 - Locate (parallel):

CopyTask(subagent_type="codebase-locator", prompt="Find all authentication-related files including handlers, middleware, and services")
Task(subagent_type="thoughts-locator", prompt="Find any documentation about authentication implementation")

Step 2 - Analyze (parallel, after step 1 completes):

CopyTask(subagent_type="codebase-analyzer", prompt="Analyze authentication flow from login endpoint through JWT generation")
Task(subagent_type="codebase-pattern-finder", prompt="Find examples of how other endpoints use authentication middleware")

Step 3 - Synthesize: Combine findings with specific file paths and line numbers.