# Recipe: research synthesis, what do we already know about it?

A copy-paste prompt: your agent reads what your team has written on a question and turns it into findings with confidence, sources, tensions and a next step.

> [!info]
> **For:** a researcher, product manager, or anyone about to start work on a topic the team has already discussed. **When:** before new research, a spec or a big decision. **Takes:** a few minutes of agent time. **You get:** a one-page synthesis: the answer in brief, findings with confidence and sources, where the sources disagree, open questions, and a proposed next step.

## The prompt

```text
What do we already know about <question>? Synthesize it from onecell.
Save it to <cell>.

1. Search onecell broadly (several phrasings, all cells I can read) and
   read the documents that matter: research, specs, reviews, decisions.
   Include repo docs if the repo is here. Don't search the web unless I
   ask.

2. Draft "Research: <question>" (dry run first):
   - the answer in brief, in three sentences
   - findings as a table: finding, confidence (high, medium, low) and
     source, cited as cell · heading
   - where the sources disagree, and what that suggests
   - open questions, as a checklist
   - the next step as a proposed decision

3. Reply with the link and the one finding that changes what we should
   do next.
```

## What your agent does

1. Searches widely
   Several phrasings across every cell you can read, because the best note is often filed somewhere unexpected.
2. Rates what it finds
   Each finding gets a confidence and a source, so you can see what is settled and what is a hunch.
3. Looks for disagreement
   Where two documents pull different ways is usually where the real decision is.
4. Proposes a next step
   As a decision you can accept, not a list of ideas.

## What you get

A synthesis for a made-up invoicing app, Tally. The useful part is the tension it found: interviews and usage data disagree, which changes what to test next.

<!-- onecell:block {"type":"embed","documentId":"93eab827-2378-430a-9e1b-3b53000e6901"} -->
[Sample research synthesis: why freelancers chase payments by hand](https://onecell.io/p/sample-research-synthesis-late-payments)

## Variations

<details>
<summary>Add outside research</summary>

Add: “Then search the web for what others have published on this, keep outside sources in a separate table with links and dates, and don't mix them with ours.”

</details>

<details>
<summary>Interview or feedback notes</summary>

Point it at a cell of interview notes and ask for themes, each with how many people said it and one short quote, instead of confidence levels.

</details>

<details>
<summary>Keep it current</summary>

Ask again after new work lands: “Update the synthesis, mark what changed since last time, and keep the old findings dated.”

</details>

## Tips

- Low confidence is useful information. Don't let the agent drop it.
- Ask for the tension explicitly. Agents tend to smooth disagreements over.
- A synthesis is only as good as what the team wrote down. Gaps it finds are worth filling.

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Part of [onecell recipes](https://onecell.io/help/recipes): copy-paste prompts for using onecell in your work.