ResearchClaw — Autonomous Research Pipeline Skill
Description
Run ResearchClaw's 23-stage autonomous research pipeline. Given a research topic, this skill orchestrates the entire research workflow: literature review → hypothesis generation → experiment design → code generation & execution → result analysis → paper writing → peer review → final export.
Trigger Conditions
Activate this skill when the user:
- Asks to "research [topic]", "write a paper about [topic]", or "investigate [topic]"
- Wants to run an autonomous research pipeline
- Asks to generate a research paper from scratch
- Mentions "ResearchClaw" by name
Instructions
Prerequisites Check
- Verify config file exists:
bash
ls config.yaml || ls config.researchclaw.example.yaml - If no
config.yaml, create one from the example:bashcp config.researchclaw.example.yaml config.yaml - Ensure the user's LLM API key is configured in
config.yamlunderllm.api_keyor viallm.api_key_envenvironment variable.
Running the Pipeline
Option A: CLI (recommended)
bashresearchclaw run --topic "Your research topic here" --auto-approve
Options:
--topic/-t: Override the research topic from config--config/-c: Config file path (default:config.yaml)--output/-o: Output directory (default:artifacts/rc-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-HASH/)--from-stage: Resume from a specific stage (e.g.,PAPER_OUTLINE)--auto-approve: Auto-approve gate stages (5, 9, 20) without human input
Option B: Python API
pythonfrom researchclaw.pipeline.runner import execute_pipeline from researchclaw.config import RCConfig from researchclaw.adapters import AdapterBundle from pathlib import Path config = RCConfig.load("config.yaml", check_paths=False) results = execute_pipeline( run_dir=Path("artifacts/my-run"), run_id="research-001", config=config, adapters=AdapterBundle(), auto_approve_gates=True, ) # Check results for r in results: print(f"Stage {r.stage.name}: {r.status.value}")
Option C: Iterative Pipeline (multi-round improvement)
pythonfrom researchclaw.pipeline.runner import execute_iterative_pipeline results = execute_iterative_pipeline( run_dir=Path("artifacts/my-run"), run_id="research-001", config=config, adapters=AdapterBundle(), max_iterations=3, convergence_rounds=2, )
Output Structure
After a successful run, the output directory contains:
artifacts/<run-id>/ ├── stage-1/ # TOPIC_INIT outputs ├── stage-2/ # PROBLEM_DECOMPOSE outputs ├── ... ├── stage-10/ │ └── experiment.py # Generated experiment code ├── stage-12/ │ └── runs/run-1.json # Experiment execution results ├── stage-14/ │ ├── experiment_summary.json # Aggregated metrics │ └── results_table.tex # LaTeX results table ├── stage-17/ │ └── paper_draft.md # Full paper draft ├── stage-22/ │ └── charts/ # Generated visualizations │ ├── metric_trajectory.png │ └── experiment_comparison.png └── pipeline_summary.json # Overall pipeline status
Experiment Modes
| Mode | Description | Config |
|---|---|---|
simulated | LLM generates synthetic results (no code execution) | experiment.mode: simulated |
sandbox | Execute generated code locally via subprocess | experiment.mode: sandbox |
ssh_remote | Execute on remote GPU server via SSH | experiment.mode: ssh_remote |
Troubleshooting
- Config validation error: Run
researchclaw validate --config config.yaml - LLM connection failure: Check
llm.base_urland API key - Sandbox execution failure: Verify
experiment.sandbox.python_pathexists and has numpy installed - Gate rejection: Use
--auto-approveor manually approve at stages 5, 9, 20
Tools Required
- File read/write (for config and artifacts)
- Bash (for CLI execution)
- No external MCP servers required for basic operation


