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Active Research

Listed
actionbook·vlatest·data·Apache-2.0

This skill proactively gathers relevant information & insights, boosting your content by ensuring it's current and well-supported.

Repository

Install on your platform

Showing Claude Code. One command installs this skill into any of the agents below.

  1. 1

    Run this in your project

    terminal
    $ npx skills add actionbook/actionbook --skill active-research -a claude-code

  2. Uses the open-source skills CLI and needs Node.js. Add -g to install it for your user instead of this project.

What we know about this skill

Publisher

actionbook

Taken from the source listing. We haven't verified who controls this account.

Install target

Live repository

Not pinned. Installing fetches whatever the repository holds at the time you run the command.

No human has reviewed this code. The checks below are a static scan of the files at one commit — nobody has run this skill or judged whether it works. A skill runs with whatever access you give your agent, so read the source before you install it.

Automated safety checks

scanned

This skill failed 1 of 6 checks. A failure is not proof of bad intent; it means something in the code needs a human to look at it before you run it.

  • No undeclared network calls: failed

    Contacts 2 hosts that are neither well-known infrastructure nor declared in the skill's frontmatter: ar5iv.org, arxiv.org.

    Every host the skill dials — from its scripts, its config endpoints or the commands it tells the agent to run — is either well-known package and API infrastructure or declared in its own frontmatter. Links in documentation are not counted.

    Hosts contacted

    arxiv.orgundeclaredhuggingface.comodel providerar5iv.orgundeclared

    What it found

    • skills/active-research/SKILL.md:370contacts arxiv.org
      actionbook --block-images browser fetch "https://arxiv.org/abs/<arxiv_id>" --format text --json
    • skills/active-research/SKILL.md:376contacts ar5iv.org
      actionbook browser fetch "https://ar5iv.org/html/<arxiv_id>" --format text --lite --json

  • Declares what it does: passed

    SKILL.md parses and declares a name and a description.

    SKILL.md exists, its frontmatter parses, and it declares a name and a description.

  • No obfuscated payloads: passed

    No encoded or obfuscated payloads.

    No base64, hex or compressed blob is decoded and then executed, and no encoded shell commands.

  • No credential access: passed

    Reads no keys, tokens, keychains or credential files.

    Neither the code nor the SKILL.md instructions read SSH keys, cloud credentials, keychains, token stores, browser cookie databases or dotfiles that hold secrets.

  • No pipe-to-shell installers: passed

    No pipe-to-shell or download-and-run installers.

    No `curl … | sh` pattern, in the code or in the instructions, that runs code fetched at run time.

  • Pinned to a commit: passed

    Scanned actionbook/actionbook at 0e31254cc1.

    The exact upstream commit SHA that was scanned is recorded, so the result refers to specific bytes.

Commit
0e31254cc1
Manifest
skills/active-research/SKILL.md
Scanned
1 file, 735 lines
This is a static scan, not a review. It reads the skill's files; it does not run them, and it cannot tell you whether the skill is any good or whether the code does what its description says. A skill runs with whatever access you give your agent.
What each check looks for →

About this skill

What it does

This skill allows AI agents to perform active research, meaning they can dynamically search and synthesize information from external sources. It goes beyond simple fact retrieval by actively seeking out relevant data based on evolving queries and incorporating that new information into responses. The agent can update its knowledge base in real-time and provide the most current answers possible.

When to use it

  • Staying Current: When needing up-to-date information on rapidly changing topics like financial markets or breaking news events.
  • Complex Investigations: For tasks requiring gathering data from multiple sources, such as researching a competitor's product line.
  • Dynamic Reporting: When generating reports that need to reflect the latest available statistics and trends.
  • Answering Evolving Questions: When users ask follow-up questions or refine their initial queries, requiring the agent to re-evaluate its search parameters.

Key capabilities

  • Real-time information retrieval
  • Dynamic query refinement based on results
  • Synthesis of data from multiple sources
  • Knowledge base updating

Example prompts

  • "Research the latest developments in renewable energy technology."
  • "Find recent news articles about electric vehicle sales and summarize them."
  • "What are the current stock prices for Tesla, Apple, and Microsoft?"

Tips & gotchas

The agent's effectiveness depends on access to reliable external data sources. Ensure appropriate API keys or search engine configurations are provided for optimal performance.