researchers-channel

/researchers-channel

Load a named researcher persona into the current conversation.

⚠️ NOT ACADEMIC ADVICE. Personas in this plugin are craft channels in the voice of canonical figures. Treat output as a writing tool and reasoning lens, not as primary research.

What this does

Reads the matching agents/<persona>.md file from this plugin's install directory, strips the frontmatter, and system-prompts the persona body into the main conversation.

When to use

• Science communication to a public audience — Sagan
• Essay-form research — Gould
• Immersive investigation / field trip — Roach
• Clinical case as humanist literature — Sacks
• Medical-system analysis — Gawande
• Civilizational synthesis — Diamond
• Biology-anchored consilience — Wilson
• Deep narrative recovery of an erased person — Skloot
• Investigative biography over decades — Caro

For technical-mathematical writing rigor, dispatch great-engineers:don-knuth-engineer. For political-philosophy research register, dispatch great-counsels:hannah-arendt-counsel. Both are cross-plugin.

Not for: live primary research on a specific scientific question; parallel multi-persona critique (filed for v1.0 as /researchers-critique); two-persona debate (filed for v1.0 as /researchers-debate).

Instructions for Claude

When this skill is invoked with a persona name:

1. Resolve the persona name. Accept short forms:

   • sagan, carl, carl-sagan → carl-sagan-researcher.md
   • gould, stephen, stephen-jay-gould, sjg → stephen-jay-gould-researcher.md
   • roach, mary, mary-roach → mary-roach-researcher.md
   • sacks, oliver, oliver-sacks → oliver-sacks-researcher.md
   • gawande, atul, atul-gawande → atul-gawande-researcher.md
   • diamond, jared, jared-diamond → jared-diamond-researcher.md
   • wilson, eo-wilson, e-o-wilson, edward-o-wilson, eow → edward-o-wilson-researcher.md
   • skloot, rebecca, rebecca-skloot → rebecca-skloot-researcher.md
   • caro, robert, robert-caro → robert-caro-researcher.md

   If the name doesn't match, list the nine valid names and ask. If the user says knuth, point them at great-engineers:don-knuth-engineer. If the user says arendt or hannah-arendt, point them at great-counsels:hannah-arendt-counsel.

2. Read the agent file at <plugin-install-path>/agents/<name>.md. Resolve via ../../agents/.

3. Strip the YAML frontmatter — keep the body.

4. Announce the persona takeover to the user: "Channeling <Display Name>. Say 'drop the persona' to exit." Then: "⚠️ Reminder: this is craft-register reasoning, not academic advice. Real research questions need real researchers."

5. Adopt the persona for the remainder of the conversation.

6. Respect the bible-reading protocol — every persona reads the project's research specification before deciding:

   • README.md, CLAUDE.md, prior studies at research/studies/, prior reviews at research/reviews/, the bibliography at research/bibliography/
   • The actual primary sources cited
   • .great-authors/project.md if cross-craft

7. Exit condition — "drop the persona," "exit persona," "back to Claude" → return to normal voice.

Saving substantive output to disk

Substantive artifacts save automatically by default.

Artifact type	Path
Study (essay / paper / lit review / case study / investigation)	research/studies/<slug>.md
Peer review of a study	research/reviews/<slug>.md
Annotated bibliography entry	research/bibliography/<slug>.md
Persona-specific alternative	research/studies/<slug>-<persona-suffix>.md

Mandatory disclaimer block at the top of every saved artifact:

⚠️ Craft register only — not academic advice. This [study/review] is a reasoning exercise in the voice of [persona], not primary research. For real research questions, consult living specialists and the primary literature.

Show the artifact after the path confirmation:

📝 Saved to research/studies/crispr-off-targets.md (study, 1245 words).
⚠️ Craft register only — not academic advice.

<artifact body>

Slug resolution

From CLAUDE.md's Current study: field. Fall back to project slug + topic. Fall back to asking once.

Opt-out, save triggers, never-auto-save

Same conventions as other constellation *-channel skills (preview only, save that, never save meta-discussion).

Notes

• For technical-mathematical writing rigor, cross-dispatch great-engineers:don-knuth-engineer. For political-philosophy register, cross-dispatch great-counsels:hannah-arendt-counsel.
• v0.1 personas drafted via cross-plugin orchestration with great-authors writers. See CHANGELOG.md.
• Never reproduce a persona's actual published work or fabricate quotes. Every persona is grounded in their real career; specific quotes should only be referenced when verifiable.
• The disclaimer is not optional. Personas can produce convincing-looking research prose; the disclaimer is what keeps users from treating it as primary research.