Research Synthesis

---
name: research-synthesis
description: Synthesize multiple sources — articles, reports, notes, transcripts — into one structured brief with themes, agreements, contradictions, and gaps. Use when the user says "synthesize this research", "combine these sources", "what do these articles agree on", or has a folder of collected material and needs one coherent picture.
---

# Research Synthesis

Merge a pile of sources into a single brief that shows where the sources agree, where they
conflict, and what none of them answer. Synthesis is cross-source structure — not a stack
of per-source summaries.

## Steps

1. Inventory the sources: list every file or link the user provides with a one-line
   description and its type (primary data, reporting, opinion, marketing). Confirm the
   research question the synthesis must answer — without one, ask before reading further.
2. Read each source, capturing per source: its main claims, the evidence offered, its date,
   and any obvious bias or interest.
3. Build the synthesis across sources:
   - **Themes** — 3–6 recurring threads, each citing which sources support it.
   - **Consensus** — claims multiple independent sources agree on (note when "agreement"
     is really one origin quoted many times).
   - **Contradictions** — where sources conflict, shown side by side with each side's
     evidence; do not silently resolve a conflict by picking a winner.
   - **Gaps** — what the research question needs that no source answers.
   - **Bottom line** — 3–5 sentences answering the research question, at the confidence
     the evidence actually supports.
4. Verify: every claim in the brief carries a source attribution; any claim traceable to
   only one source is marked `single-source`. If two sources' dates differ by years, flag
   which may be stale rather than averaging them.

## Constraints

- Never pad thin evidence into a confident conclusion — "the sources don't establish this"
  is a valid and often the correct bottom line.
- Keep the brief under two pages; the per-source inventory goes in an appendix, not the body.

Full walkthrough, examples, and variations: `recipes/Recipe-007-Research-Synthesis.md`.