Research Companion (English)
A persistent research thinking partner for academic/scientific projects, available as a Claude Code plugin and a Codex skill.
> Looking for the bilingual (Chinese/English) version? See research-companion.
Features
- Named companion with custom personality
- Layered memory system (L1 core / L2 sessions / L3 archive)
- Cross-session continuity
- Context window monitoring hook
- English interface
Installation
Claude Code (via Plugin Marketplace)
Step 1: Add the marketplace:
/plugin marketplace add rainshed/research-companion-en
Step 2: Install the plugin:
/plugin install research-companion-en@rainshed-research-companion-en
Codex
Codex uses native skill discovery from $CODEX_HOME/skills/ (default: ~/.codex/skills/).
Ask Codex:
Install the `research-companion` skill from https://github.com/rainshed/research-companion-en/tree/main/codex-skills/research-companion using the built-in GitHub skill installer, then remind me to restart Codex.
Manual instructions: .codex/INSTALL.md or install directly from codex-skills/research-companion
Optional: Context Monitor
The context window monitor hook uses cozempic to track context usage and warn you before running out of space. Install it with:
npm install -g cozempic
The plugin works without cozempic — the context monitor will simply be inactive.
Update
Claude Code
/plugin update research-companion-en@rainshed-research-companion-en
Codex
If installed via symlink (Option B in INSTALL.md), pull the latest changes:
cd /path/to/research-companion-en && git pull
For a copied install (Option A), ask Codex to reinstall:
Reinstall the `research-companion` skill from https://github.com/rainshed/research-companion-en/tree/main/codex-skills/research-companion using the built-in GitHub skill installer, then remind me to restart Codex.
Then restart Codex.
Usage
Say research companion in Claude Code or Codex to activate.
On first use, the companion will ask you to give it a name. After that, you can also activate it by saying that name.
How the Memory System Works
Research Companion uses a three-tier hierarchical memory system inspired by how humans organize memory — from always-available core knowledge, through recent session recall, to long-term archives. Memories are dynamically promoted, recalled, and archived based on relevance, mimicking consolidation and forgetting.
For a detailed explanation, see:
Repository Structure
research-companion-en/
├── .codex/
│ └── INSTALL.md # Codex installation runbook
├── .claude-plugin/
│ ├── plugin.json # Plugin manifest
│ └── marketplace.json # Marketplace catalog
├── skills/
│ └── research-companion/
│ ├── SKILL.md # Claude Code skill (writes CLAUDE.md)
│ └── memory-templates.md
├── codex-skills/
│ └── research-companion/
│ ├── SKILL.md # Codex skill (writes AGENTS.md)
│ └── memory-templates.md
├── hooks/
│ └── hooks.json # Context monitor hook config
├── scripts/
│ └── context-monitor.sh # Context window usage monitor
├── docs/
│ └── memory-system-explained.md # Memory system deep-dive
└── README.md
License
MIT











