research-flight

name	research-flight
description	Generate structured flight options from origin/destination for trip-planning (best-effort live WebFetch + heuristic fallback).

Research Flight

Use this skill when a trip-planning agent needs flight options between an origin and a destination.

When to use

1. The user requests a complete trip plan and flight options are required.
2. The flight-researcher agent asks for flight options using origin/destination constraints.

Inputs (provided implicitly in the task)

• origin: city/airport/region to depart from
• destination: city/airport/region to arrive at
• (optional) date_range
• (optional) budget
• (optional) preferences (example: nonstop only, avoid red-eyes, prefer shortest travel time)

If any input is missing, make reasonable assumptions and list them explicitly.

Output Contract (required)

Return only this structure (do not add extra prose outside the block):

flight_options:
  origin: <string>
  destination: <string>
  assumptions:
    - <string>
  options:
    - id: <F1|F2|...>
      airline: <string>
      depart_local: <ISO-8601-ish string or 'TBD'>
      arrive_local: <ISO-8601-ish string or 'TBD'>
      stops: <'nonstop'|'1_stop'|'2_plus_stops'|'TBD'>
      estimated_price_usd: <number or 'TBD'>
      highlights: <short string>
      tradeoffs: <short string>
  confidence: <'low'|'medium'|'high'>

Live lookup workflow (best-effort)

1. Use WebFetch only on hosts allowed by the project sandbox (e.g. meta-search sites such as kayak.com, skyscanner.net, expedia.com, or official airline sites on the allowlist such as aa.com, delta.com).
2. Prefer 1–2 fetches with clear search URLs or result pages; extract approximate times, stops, carriers, and price ranges from the returned text or markup. Treat all numbers as non-binding estimates, not guaranteed quotes.
3. If the page is empty, blocked, mostly JavaScript, or parsing fails: set confidence: 'low', use TBD for unknown fields, and record what failed under assumptions (e.g. "WebFetch to kayak.com returned no parseable itinerary rows").
4. If no fetch is attempted or all fetches fail: still return at least two diverse synthetic options (cheapest vs fastest vs fewest stops) with confidence: 'low' and explicit assumptions—same as heuristic fallback below.

Heuristic fallback

• Use diverse tradeoffs across options (cheapest vs fastest vs fewest stops).
• Use TBD when you cannot infer an exact time or price.
• Estimated prices should be plausible ranges, not precise quotes.