Research & Analysis Workflows

Tailor and optimize academic application documents — CV, resume, statement of purpose (SOP), and personal statement — for a specific PhD opportunity. Use this whenever the user wants to adapt, customize, write, polish, or optimize application materials — e.g. "tailor my CV for this position", "write an SOP for MIT EECS", "customize my personal statement for the Smith lab", "make my resume fit this studentship", or "optimize my statement for this professor". Selects, reorders, and emphasizes true material from the applicant's master CV and profile to fit the target; never invents credentials. Writes tailored documents to knowledge-base/applications/ /. Trigger whenever the intent is to prepare or adapt CV/SOP/personal-statement material for a specific application.

Track PhD application status, deadlines, required documents, and follow-up timing across many universities at once. Use this whenever the user wants to manage, check, review, or get a status update on their applications — e.g. "what deadlines are coming up?", "which professors haven't replied?", "what do I still need for the MIT application?", "where am I with everything?", "remind me to follow up", or "give me a status update on my PhD apps". Reads the application status files and interaction logs in the knowledge base, surfaces what's due, missing, or overdue, updates the records, and can set up recurring reminders. Trigger whenever the intent is to get oriented across multiple applications or stay on top of deadlines and follow-ups, even if the user doesn't say "tracker".

Rank, prioritize, or compare PhD opportunities by fit, funding, research impact, and admission probability so the applicant knows where to spend effort. Use this whenever the user wants to decide between or order multiple professors, labs, programs, or openings — e.g. "which of these should I apply to first?", "rank my options", "is it worth applying to this one?", "compare these three labs", "where are my best chances?", or "help me build a shortlist". Reads the professor profiles and openings already in the knowledge base, scores each on transparent weighted dimensions, and writes a ranked shortlist with per-item rationale to knowledge-base/openings/ranking.md. Trigger whenever the intent is to prioritize among several PhD targets, even if the user doesn't use the word "rank".

Draft a personalized cold email or a follow-up message to a potential PhD supervisor. Use this whenever the user wants to write, draft, compose, or send an email to a professor — e.g. "write a cold email to Prof X", "help me reach out to this professor", "draft an intro email about her robotics work", "the professor hasn't replied, write a follow-up", or "can you email this PI about a PhD?". Grounds the draft in the professor's real recent work (from their knowledge-base profile) and the applicant's real background, produces a ready-to-edit draft the applicant sends themselves (never auto-sends), and logs the contact with a follow-up date to knowledge-base/interactions/. Trigger whenever the intent is to contact a professor about a PhD, including follow-ups and reply-drafting, even if the word "email" isn't used.

Orchestrate the end-to-end PhD application process and route to the right sub-skill. Use this as the front door whenever the user expresses a broad PhD-application intent without naming a specific step — e.g. "help me apply for PhDs", "be my PhD application copilot", "where am I with my applications and what should I do next?", "I want to start applying to PhD programs", or "what's the next thing I should work on?". Surveys the knowledge base to see what stage each opportunity is at, recommends the highest-value next action, and kicks off the matching skill. Trigger for orientation, planning, or whole-pipeline requests; defer to the specific skill when the user already names a concrete task (e.g. "write a cold email to Prof X" → outreach-email).

Find open PhD positions, funded studentships, fellowships, or labs actively recruiting students that match the applicant's profile. Use this whenever the user wants to discover, search for, find, or surface PhD opportunities — e.g. "find me PhD positions in NLP in Europe", "any funded studentships in computational biology?", "what programs should I be looking at?", "search for open PhD spots with professors working on diffusion models", or "are there openings in these three departments?". Sweeps position boards, department and lab pages, and funding databases, filters by the applicant's field/region/constraints, de-duplicates, and writes structured opening records to knowledge-base/openings/. Trigger even when the user names a board, a region, or a topic instead of saying "position" — any intent to locate PhD opportunities to apply to should use this skill.

Deep-dive a professor or research lab to assess PhD fit.

Deep-dive a professor or research lab to assess PhD fit.

Draft a PhD research proposal or research plan aligned to a specific lab's current and future agenda. Use this whenever the user needs a research proposal, project proposal, research statement, or research plan for a PhD application or a particular professor — e.g. "write a research proposal for the Smith lab", "I need a 2-page research plan for my Cambridge application", "draft a PhD proposal on diffusion models for this professor", or "help me turn my interests into a proposal that fits her work". Builds a concrete, feasible project at the intersection of the lab's open problems and the applicant's strengths, grounded in real prior work, as a draft the applicant authors and refines. Trigger whenever the intent is to produce a research proposal tied to a PhD opportunity.