| name | Web Research |
| description | Answer a question from multiple independent sources and return a cited, verified summary. |
| version | 1.0.0 |
Web Research
Research a question across several sources, verify the claims, and return a
short, cited answer.
When to use
- A decision needs facts you don't already have.
- You need current information beyond what's in memory.
Tools
Discovery and retrieval are separate steps with separate tools:
web_search finds sources — it returns titles, URLs, domains, dates and
short snippets. Each call spends the company's search budget and the budget is
capped per day, so search once with a good phrase rather than repeatedly with
variations.web_fetch reads one page you already have a URL for. Snippets are
previews, not the page.
Steps
- Frame the question and what a good answer looks like.
- Search with
web_search to gather several independent sources.
- Read the primary sources with
web_fetch — not just the snippets.
- Verify — corroborate each key claim across two sources.
- Synthesize a short answer; cite every claim with a URL you actually saw
in a
web_search result or fetched.
If search is unavailable
web_search may be absent (this company has not granted it) or may refuse
because the daily budget is spent. Either way:
- Say so, plainly, in your answer. "I could not search the web" is a
complete and useful sentence.
- Work from URLs the operator supplied, reading them with
web_fetch.
- Never fabricate a citation. Do not write a URL you have not seen returned
by a tool, and do not attribute a claim to a source you did not read. An
unverified answer that says it is unverified is worth far more than a
confident one with invented links.
Output
A concise summary, a bullet list of findings with links, and an explicit note
on anything that could not be verified.
