| name | deep-research |
| description | Use this skill to produce thorough, cited research reports synthesized from multiple web sources. Activate when the user wants to research a topic in depth, do competitive analysis, evaluate a technology, size a market, or run due diligence — anytime an answer requires evidence and source attribution. Triggers include "research", "deep dive", "investigate", "what's the current state of", or "compare X vs Y with sources". |
Deep Research
Produce thorough, cited research reports from multiple web sources. Every claim must be backed by a source.
Drift-prone. Web search/scrape tool names, quotas, and result shapes change. Before promising coverage or quoting live source counts, verify which search/fetch tools are actually configured in this environment (re-forge's MCP config in ~/.claude.json, or built-in web search/fetch) and what the current API docs say.
When to activate
- Researching any topic in depth, or competitive/market analysis
- Technology evaluation or due diligence on companies/investors/technologies
- Any question requiring synthesis across multiple sources
- The user says "research", "deep dive", "investigate", or "current state of"
Tooling
Use whatever search and fetch capabilities are available — configured search/scrape MCP tools (e.g. firecrawl, exa) if present, otherwise the built-in web search and web fetch. Confirm availability before promising breadth of coverage.
What to do
- Understand the goal. Ask 1–2 quick clarifying questions (learning vs. deciding vs. writing? any specific angle or depth?). If the user says "just research it", proceed with reasonable defaults.
- Plan. Break the topic into 3–5 research sub-questions (e.g. main applications, measured outcomes, regulatory landscape, leading players, market size/trajectory).
- Execute multi-source search. For each sub-question, search with 2–3 keyword variations, mixing general and news-focused queries. Aim for 15–30 unique sources total. Prioritize academic/official/reputable news > blogs > forums.
- Deep-read key sources. Fetch full content for the 3–5 most promising URLs — do not rely on search snippets alone.
- Synthesize and write the report in the structure below.
- Deliver. Short topics: post the full report in chat. Long reports: post the executive summary + key takeaways and save the full report to a file.
Report structure
# [Topic]: Research Report
*Generated: [date] | Sources: [N] | Confidence: [High/Medium/Low]*
## Executive Summary
[3–5 sentence overview of key findings]
## 1. [Major Theme]
- Key point ([Source Name](url))
- Supporting data ([Source Name](url))
## 2. [Major Theme]
...
## Key Takeaways
- [Actionable insight]
## Sources
1. [Title](url) — one-line summary
## Methodology
Searched [N] queries across web and news. Analyzed [M] sources.
Sub-questions investigated: [list]
Parallel research
For broad topics, parallelize with subagents (one per cluster of sub-questions). Each agent searches, deep-reads, and returns findings; the main session synthesizes the final report.
Hard rules (quality)
- Every claim needs a source — no unsourced assertions.
- Cross-reference: if only one source says it, flag it as unverified.
- Prefer sources from the last 12 months; recency matters.
- Acknowledge gaps explicitly — if a sub-question lacks good info, say "insufficient data found."
- No hallucination. Separate fact from inference; label estimates, projections, and opinions clearly.
