| 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
