Two Axis Research Agent Skill

Research a subject along two axes — how it got here and how it compares today — and cross them into a traceable report on where it goes…

Context cost
1.5k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 6.0 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
Apache-2.0the author’s own terms
Last change
—no release on file
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Research a subject along two axes — how it got here and how it compares today — and cross them into a traceable report on where it goes next.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

documentationresearch

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md6.0 kB · preview
--- name: two-axis-research argument-hint: <the subject — a product, company, person, technology, industry or event> disable-model-invocation: true license: Apache-2.0 ---
9A subject is explained by the road it travelled and the company it keeps. Run two axes: the vertical asks how it got here and which early choices hardened into **path dependence**; the horizontal asks how it stands against its alternatives today. The future is readable only where the axes cross, and every claim rests on a **primary source** or says that it does not.
10
11Write in the language the user writes in.
12
13## 1. Fix the subject, the cutoff and the evidence bar
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15With no subject, or one too vague to research, ask one question for it and stop. Name which kind of thing it is — product, company, person, technology, industry or event — because the kind decides what counts as a comparator later.
16
17The research cutoff is the day of execution: state today's date in the report as the cutoff. Where a deep-research mode is available, use it; otherwise WebSearch to find sources and WebFetch to read each in full.
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19A **primary source** — official material, raw data, papers, financial reports, interviews — outranks any secondary account of it; when only a secondary source turns up, follow its citations back to the primary. Beside each important conclusion cite the source and its date, in the same sentence or the line after. Write facts, inferences and opinions as separately labelled claims. When sources conflict, present each version side by side with its source; when no evidence turns up, keep the claim and mark it **unverified** (暂未核实 in Chinese).
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21Done when the subject and its kind are named, today's date is fixed as the cutoff, and the search means is chosen.
22
23## 2. Trace the vertical axis
24
25Establish the context and need the subject was born into, and the key drivers — named people, institutions or forces, with what each pushed and why.
26
27Find the major turning points, successes and failures. A turning point is a fork, not a milestone: record what was chosen, what was declined and what it cost.
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md974 words
Files1
LicenceApache-2.0
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈80
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
1,420
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
0.75%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 8% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

1.5k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Middling. Fine to keep on in a project where you use it weekly, worth unloading in one where you never do.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

1 file, 6.0 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md6.0 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 1 file you can review in full before installing. The Apache-2.0 licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Two Axis Research · 1.5k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/two-axis-research/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/two-axis-research" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/two-axis-research ] || { mv .claude/skills/two-axis-research "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/two-axis-research" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/two-axis-research"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add cooltheworld/two-axis-research

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/two-axis-research/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/two-axis-research/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/two-axis-research" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/two-axis-research ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/two-axis-research "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/two-axis-research" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/two-axis-research" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/two-axis-research/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Versionnot versioned
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencecooltheworld/two-axis-research

Versions

Its author publishes no version number, so there is nothing here to pin to: what you install is the folder as it stands today. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

Pinning

Nothing to pin to: this skill carries no version number of its own. What you install is what the folder holds on the day you install it.

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