deep-research

name	deep-research
description	Deep research and discovery before building something new. Explores local projects for reusable code, researches competitors, reads forums and reviews, analyses plugin ecosystems, investigates technical options, and produces a comprehensive research brief. Three depths: focused (30 min), wide (1-2 hours), deep (3-6 hours). Triggers: 'research this', 'discovery', 'explore the space', 'what should I build', 'competitive analysis', 'before I start building', 'research before coding'. Not for cited fact-checking research reports (a separate harness does those); this is pre-build product discovery.
compatibility	claude-code-only

Deep Research

Comprehensive research and discovery before building something new. Instead of jumping straight into code from training data, this skill goes wide and deep — local exploration, web research, competitor analysis, ecosystem signals, future-casting — and produces a research brief that makes the actual build 10x more productive.

Depth Levels

The difference is scope of ambition, not just time.

Depth	Purpose	Scope
focused	Answer a specific question	One decision: "CodeMirror vs ProseMirror?" — targeted search, local scan, 1-2 comparisons. Produces a 1-page recommendation.
wide	Understand the space	Landscape for a new product or feature. Competitors, ecosystem, user needs, architecture options. Enough to write a spec.
deep	Plan a major build	Leave no stone unturned. Everything in wide PLUS library/component research, plugin ecosystems, GitHub issues mining, community sentiment, future-casting, technical deep-dives on every decision. Enough to drive weeks of coding.