deep-research

name	deep-research
description	Deep research on any topic: spawns parallel child agents to investigate multiple angles, then synthesizes findings into a comprehensive briefing.
metadata	{"nightowl":{"emoji":"🔬","category":"research"}}

Deep Research

Conduct thorough, multi-angle research on a topic by spawning parallel investigator children.

When to Use

Use this skill whenever:

• The user asks you to research, investigate, or learn about something
• You need to understand a topic before acting on it
• A question requires cross-referencing multiple sources
• The user asks "what are my options", "how does X work", "what's the best way to..."
• You're uncertain about a domain and need to build understanding before proceeding

Strategy

1. Decompose the question into 2-5 independent research angles

Before spawning, think about what distinct lines of inquiry would fully cover the topic. Good decompositions are orthogonal — each child investigates something different.

Examples:

• "Best database for real-time analytics" → child-1: compare columnar DBs (ClickHouse, DuckDB, Druid), child-2: compare time-series DBs (TimescaleDB, InfluxDB), child-3: check cloud-managed options and pricing
• "How does NextAuth work?" → child-1: read NextAuth docs + architecture, child-2: find real-world usage patterns in open-source repos, child-3: check known issues and gotchas
• "Should we migrate from REST to GraphQL?" → child-1: research GraphQL trade-offs, child-2: audit our current REST API surface, child-3: find migration case studies

2. Spawn children with focused task descriptions

Each child gets a clear, self-contained task. Include:

• What to research
• Where to look (web search, GitHub, specific docs, specific repos)
• What to return — the format you expect (bullet points, comparison table, pros/cons)

Use descriptive labels: research-columnar-dbs, audit-rest-endpoints, read-nextauth-docs.

3. Wait for all completions

Do NOT poll. Track expected child IDs and wait for all TaskCompletionEvent messages.

4. Synthesize

Once all children report back:

• Cross-reference findings — look for agreement and contradiction between children
• Identify gaps — if an angle was missed or a child came back thin, spawn a follow-up child
• Rank and recommend — don't just dump information; give the user your assessment
• Cite sources — attribute findings to specific children or sources so the user can dig deeper

5. Present as a structured briefing

Format:

## Research: {topic}

### Key Findings
- ...

### Comparison (if applicable)
| Option | Pros | Cons | Verdict |

### Recommendation
...

### Open Questions
- Things that need further investigation or user input

Important Rules

• Always spawn at least 2 children — single-threaded research defeats the purpose
• Never present raw child output — always synthesize and add your own analysis
• Spawn follow-up children if initial results are incomplete or contradictory
• Be honest about confidence — flag when findings are thin or sources disagree
• Prefer primary sources (official docs, source code, APIs) over blog posts and opinions
• Children should use bash_exec for web searches, reading repos, and fetching docs