Next Action Assessment

The intelligent dispatcher that knows your full toolkit and recommends the right action at the right time.

When to Use

• Starting a work session

• Feeling stuck or unsure what to do next

• After completing a task

• Want AI to assess project state and priorities

Skill Registry

By Research Phase

Phase Primary Skills Supporting Skills

SETUP

review-script

PLANNING hypothesis-generation , literature-review , deep-research

note , task

DEVELOPMENT review-script , statistical-analysis

note , task

ANALYSIS exploratory-data-analysis , statistical-analysis , scientific-visualization

note , task

WRITING write-background , write-methods , write-results , scientific-writing

literature-review

REVIEW peer-review , review-script

scientific-writing

By Detected Condition

Condition Recommended Skill Trigger

New data file in data/

exploratory-data-analysis

Unanalyzed data files detected

Empty background.md

literature-review or write-background

No background content

Empty methods.md

write-methods

Scripts exist but no methods doc

Figures without results text write-results

Figures in manuscript/figures/ not in results.md

New audio in meetings/

transcribe → summarize-meeting

Audio without transcript

Scripts without docstrings review-script

Undocumented code

No hypothesis documented hypothesis-generation

PLANNING phase, no hypothesis in project_telos.md

Data quality issues noted statistical-analysis

After EDA identifies issues

Ready for figures scientific-visualization

Analysis complete, no pub-quality figures

Draft complete peer-review

All manuscript sections have content

Monday detected plan-week

Start of work week

Friday/End of day wrap-up

End of work session

Week boundary weekly-review

7+ days since last weekly review

Month boundary monthly-review

30+ days since last monthly review

Execution Steps

1. Load Context (REQUIRED)

Read these files to understand current state:

~/.researchAssistant/researcher_telos.md (user profile) .research/project_telos.md (project state, current phase) .research/phase_checklist.md (what's done/remaining) .research/logs/activity.md (recent activity) tasks.md (pending tasks)

Extract:

• Current phase: SETUP | PLANNING | DEVELOPMENT | ANALYSIS | WRITING | REVIEW

• Recent activity: What did they work on last?

• Pending tasks: What's marked as TODO or in-progress?

• Blockers: Any noted blockers or uncertainties?

2. First-Time Setup Check

Check for researcher profile:

IF ~/.researchAssistant/researcher_telos.md does NOT exist:

• Move ./researcher_telos_template.md to ~/.researchAssistant/researcher_telos.md
• Ask onboarding questions to populate it
• Create ~/.researchAssistant/ directory if needed ELSE:
• Delete ./researcher_telos_template.md if it still exists
• Load preferences from existing profile

Check for project setup:

IF .research/project_telos.md is mostly empty (mission not defined):

• Start project onboarding flow
• Ask: "What's this project about in 1-2 sentences?"
• Ask: "Is this part of a larger grant?"
• Ask: "What's your target output?"

3. Scan for Conditions

Check each condition in order of priority:

Critical (Check First)

• Phase gate violations: e.g., trying DEVELOPMENT with empty background

• First-time setup needed: Profile or project not configured

High Priority

• Uncommitted git changes > 3 days old

• New data files not yet explored (→ exploratory-data-analysis )

• New meeting recordings (→ transcribe )

• High-priority tasks in tasks.md

• Stale activity (>7 days since last log)

Medium Priority

• Scripts without documentation (→ review-script )

• Figures without captions (→ scientific-visualization )

• Weekly review due (→ weekly-review )

• Empty manuscript sections appropriate to current phase

Low Priority

• Monday morning (→ plan-week )

• Orphan files or incomplete sections

• End of day (→ wrap-up )

4. Consider Phase-Appropriate Skills

Based on current phase, identify which skills are most relevant:

PLANNING Phase Priorities:

• hypothesis-generation

• Do you have a clear hypothesis?

• literature-review / deep-research

• Have you surveyed the field?

• write-background

• Can you articulate the problem?

DEVELOPMENT Phase Priorities:

• review-script

• Document as you build

• statistical-analysis

• Plan your analysis approach

ANALYSIS Phase Priorities:

• exploratory-data-analysis

• Understand your data first

• statistical-analysis

• Formal testing

• scientific-visualization

• Publication figures

WRITING Phase Priorities:

• write-methods

• Document what you did

• write-results

• Describe what you found

• scientific-writing

• Polish and format

REVIEW Phase Priorities:

• peer-review

• Self-assessment

• review-script

• Code quality check

• Final scientific-writing pass

5. Generate Recommendations

Present 2-4 options ranked by value:

🎯 Recommended Next Steps

Based on your project state (Phase: ANALYSIS, Last active: 2 days ago):

A) [High Priority] Explore your new dataset

I noticed data/raw/experiment_results.csv was added recently. → Run /exploratory_data_analysis data/raw/experiment_results.csv

This will help you:

• Understand data structure and quality
• Identify any issues before formal analysis
• Generate summary statistics

B) [Medium Priority] Document your preprocessing script

scripts/preprocess.py lacks docstrings. → Run /review_script scripts/preprocess.py

Good documentation now saves time during methods writing.

C) [Routine] Weekly review

Last weekly review was 8 days ago. → Run /weekly_review

D) [Continue] Resume from last session

You were working on: "correlation analysis for Figure 2" → Continue where you left off

Quick actions: /note | /task | /wrap_up

What would you like to focus on?

Priority indicators:

• 🔴 Critical - Blocking progress

• 🟡 High priority - Should do soon

• 🔵 Recommended - Good practice

• ⚪ Optional - Nice to have

Skill Quick Reference

For user awareness, here's the full toolkit organized by purpose:

📊 Data & Analysis

Skill Command Use When

Exploratory Data Analysis /exploratory_data_analysis [file]

First look at any dataset

Statistical Analysis /statistical_analysis

Formal hypothesis testing

Scientific Visualization /scientific_visualization

Publication-quality figures

📚 Literature & Research

Skill Command Use When

Literature Review /literature_review [topic]

Systematic literature search

Deep Research /deep_research [topic]

Quick literature lookup

Hypothesis Generation /hypothesis_generation

Formulating research questions

✍️ Writing & Documentation

Skill Command Use When

Write Background /write_background

Draft introduction/background

Write Methods /write_methods

Document methodology

Write Results /write_results

Describe findings

Scientific Writing /scientific_writing

Polish any section

🔍 Review & Quality

Skill Command Use When

Peer Review /peer_review

Self-assess before submission

Review Script /review_script [path]

Code quality check

📅 Planning & Tracking

Skill Command Use When

Plan Week /plan_week

Monday planning session

Weekly Review /weekly_review

End of week reflection

Monthly Review /monthly_review

Monthly alignment check

Quarterly Review /quarterly_review

Research mission review

Wrap Up /wrap_up

End of work session

⚡ Quick Capture

Skill Command Use When

Note /note [text]

Quick thought capture

Task /task [text]

Add a todo item

Transcribe /transcribe [file]

Convert audio to text

Summarize Meeting /summarize_meeting [file]

Extract action items

Example Outputs by Phase

PLANNING Phase /next

You're in the PLANNING phase. Key priorities:

A) 🟡 Generate your hypothesis Your project_telos.md has aims but no formal hypothesis. → Run /hypothesis_generation

B) 🟡 Literature review on [detected topic] Background.md is empty. Let's build your foundation. → Run /literature_review [topic]

C) ⚪ Quick win - capture your current thinking → Run /note to log where your head is at

ANALYSIS Phase /next

You're in the ANALYSIS phase with new data. Priorities:

A) 🔴 Explore experiment_results.csv New data file detected - understand it before analyzing. → Run /exploratory_data_analysis data/raw/experiment_results.csv

B) 🟡 After EDA: Statistical analysis Once you understand the data, run formal tests. → Run /statistical_analysis

C) 🔵 Parallel: Document your analysis scripts preprocess.py and analyze.py need docstrings. → Run /review_script scripts/preprocess.py

WRITING Phase /next

You're in the WRITING phase. Current status:

• ✅ Background: Draft complete
• ⚠️ Methods: Partially written
• ❌ Results: Empty (but you have 3 figures!)

A) 🔴 Write your results section You have figures ready but no results text. → Run /write_results

B) 🟡 Complete methods documentation → Run /write_methods

C) 🔵 Scientific writing review → Run /scientific_writing on completed sections

Response Format

Always structure /next responses as:

• Context summary (1-2 lines: phase, last activity, any alerts)

• Prioritized options (A/B/C/D format with clear commands)

• Quick actions footer (remind of /note, /task, /wrap_up)

• Invitation to choose or explain their own priority

Notes

• Always be encouraging, never judgmental

• If user seems stuck, offer to break down the next step

• Remember: user may not know what commands exist - suggest them explicitly

• Update activity.md after significant interactions