The "Deep Research" skill for projects — Codebase, Architecture, and Strategic analysis, judged by lifecycle stage.
Perform comprehensive, stage-aware analysis on technical projects (open-source repos, commercial products, internal systems) across business, technical, and moat/strategy dimensions — then generate structured, actionable reports with pre-registered kill criteria.
Most evaluation errors come from applying the wrong stage's standards — demanding a moat from a pre-PMF prototype, or excusing a market leader's missing moat because it still grows. Research-Forge classifies every project into a lifecycle stage FIRST, then weights all scoring by that stage:
| Stage | Name | One Question | Top Death Causes |
|---|---|---|---|
| S0 | Concept / Pre-launch | Should this exist? (real demand + why now + why you) | Pseudo-demand; mistimed market |
| S1 | PMF Search (0→1) | Do people who try it stay? | Buying growth before retention flattens |
| S2 | Scaling (1→10) | Is the growth engine repeatable, with improving unit economics? | Org failure; scaling losses |
| S3 | Market Leadership (10→100) | What stops others from taking this? (moat + second curve) | Paradigm shift; failure to self-disrupt |
Each sub-dimension is Critical (×2), Standard (×1), or Context (unscored) depending on stage. A Critical sub-dimension rated ≤ 2 caps the verdict at "Hold / Wait".
# Full auto-chain pipeline (scan → analyze → report)
/research-forge:run # Analyze current directory
/research-forge:run https://github.com/example/project # Analyze remote project
/research-forge:run ./my-local-project # Analyze local directory
/research-forge:run --lang en # Output in English# Individual commands
/research-forge:scan <target># Quick scan + stage classification
/research-forge:analyze <target># Stage-weighted 3-dimension analysis
/research-forge:compare <target1><target2># Stage-fair side-by-side comparison
/research-forge:report <target># Formal report generation- Remote URL —
https://github.com/..., any web address - Local directory —
/path/to/project,./my-project - Local file —
./README.md,~/project/package.json
Problem Validity, Why Now, PMF Evidence, Unit Economics, Market Ceiling, Growth Engine
Architecture Quality, Engineering Culture, Scalability, Security Posture, Documentation, Maintainability & Tech Debt
Moat Strength (five-tier hierarchy: network effects > switching costs > scale economies > brand > data/tech lead), Founder-Market Fit, Org Capability, Second Curve Readiness — plus Bull Case, Bear Case, Comparable Outcomes.
- Each sub-dimension scored 1-5; Overall Score is stage-weighted (Critical ×2, Standard ×1, Context excluded).
- Strategic Verdict: Strong Recommend | Watch Closely | Hold / Wait | Not Recommended.
- Investment Signal (optional): Strong Buy / Watch / Hold / Pass.
- Kill Criteria (mandatory): every verdict ships with 2-4 falsifiable, time-bound signals that would flip it — verdicts without kill criteria are opinions, not analysis.
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--lang zh|en | Output language (default: zh) |
--focus business|technical|strategy | Deep-dive one dimension |
--output path | Custom report output path |
Reports saved to ./research-reports/[project-name]-due-diligence-[date].md by default.