name: data-research version: 1.1.0 description: | Structured data research: search sources, extract structured data, archive raw sources, maintain canonical tracker pages, deduplicate. Parameterized via YAML recipes for investor updates, donations, company updates, or any email-to-structured-data pipeline. triggers:
- "research"
- "track"
- "extract from email"
- "investor updates"
- "donations"
- "build a tracker"
- "data dig" tools:
- search
- query
- get_page
- put_page
- add_link
- add_timeline_entry
- put_raw_data
- file_upload mutating: true upstream: data-research@fc834ee
Data Research
Structured research pipeline: search sources, extract structured data, archive raw, deduplicate, update canonical trackers, backlink entities.
Contract
One skill for any email-to-structured-data pipeline. The only differences between tracking investor updates, expenses, and company metrics are the search queries, extraction schemas, and tracker page format. All three use the same 7-phase pipeline with parameterized recipes.
When to Use
- User wants to track structured data from email, web, or API sources
- User says "research", "track", "extract from email", "build a tracker"
- User mentions investor updates, donations, company metrics, filings
- User wants to set up recurring data collection (with cron recipe)
Phases
Phase 1: Define Research Recipe
Infer the research target from conversation context, recent brain activity, active
tasks (ops/tasks.md), and memory files. If the request is ambiguous, present the
most likely interpretation based on what the user has been working on. Only ask for
clarification if context is genuinely insufficient. Options:
- Pick a built-in recipe: investor-updates, expense-tracker, company-updates
- Define a custom recipe with: source queries, classification rules, extraction schema, tracker page path, tracker format
Recipes are YAML files at ~/.gbrain/recipes/{name}.yaml. Scaffold a new one by
copying a built-in recipe file and editing its fields.
Phase 2: Search Sources
Brain first (maybe we already have this data). Then:
- Email via credential gateway: windowed queries (quarterly, monthly if truncated)
- Web via search: public filings, press releases, regulatory data
- APIs: any structured data source the recipe defines
- Attachments: PDF extraction, HTML stripping
Phase 3: Classify
Deterministic first (regex patterns from recipe), LLM fallback. Log every LLM fallback for future regex improvement (fail-improve loop). Skip marketing, newsletters, noise based on recipe's classification rules.
Phase 4: Extract Structured Data
EXTRACTION INTEGRITY RULE:
- Save raw source immediately (before any extraction)
- Extract fields using deterministic regex first, LLM fallback
- When summarizing batch results: re-read from saved files
- Never trust LLM working memory after batch processing
This prevents a known hallucination bug where batch-processed amounts were 13/13 wrong from LLM working memory while saved files were correct.
Phase 5: Archive Raw Sources
put_raw_datafor email bodies, API responsesfile_uploadfor PDF attachments, documents- Create
.redirect.yamlpointers for large files in storage - Every tracker entry must link back to its raw source
Phase 6: Deduplicate
Before adding to tracker:
- Exact match (same key fields) → skip
- Fuzzy match (same entity + date + similar amount within tolerance) → flag for review
- Different amount for same entity+date → add with note (could be correction)
Phase 7: Update Canonical Tracker + Backlink
- Parse existing tracker page (markdown table)
- Append new entries in correct section (grouped by year/quarter/entity)
- Compute running totals
- Backlink every mentioned entity (person → people/ page, company → companies/ page)
- Uses enrichment service for entity pages
Built-In Recipes
Three example recipes ship with GBrain (see ~/.gbrain/recipes/):
- investor-updates — extract MRR, ARR, growth, burn, runway, headcount from investor update emails
- expense-tracker — extract amounts, recipients, platforms from receipt emails (subscriptions, services, recurring charges)
- company-updates — extract revenue, users, key metrics from portfolio company update emails
Anti-Patterns
- Trusting LLM working memory for amounts after batch processing (use extraction integrity rule)
- Creating tracker entries without raw source links
- Running without deduplication (leads to double-counted entries)
- Hardcoding source-specific patterns in the pipeline code (use recipes)
Output Format
Brain page at the recipe's tracker_page path with markdown tables:
### 2026
| Date | Company | MRR | ARR | Growth | Status |
|------|---------|-----|-----|--------|--------|
| 2026-04-01 | Example Co | $188K | $2.3M | +14.7% MoM | [Source](link) |
Each entry links to its raw source. Running totals at the bottom of each section.
Conventions
References skills/conventions/quality.md for citation and back-linking rules.