Deep Research

Two-phase research workflow: planning then execution.

Overview

This skill provides a structured approach to deep research:

Phase 1: Planning (High Freedom)

• Discuss with user to clarify and refine research questions.
• Define what to investigate and what the report should cover.
• Set expectations for research depth and output.
• Create research plan document.

Phase 2: Execution (Low Freedom)

• Sub-agent reads the research plan
• Independently decides how to search for each sub-question
• Can dynamically add searches based on findings
• Analyzes content and generates report with citations

Phase 1: Generate Research Plan

The coordinator (main session) performs:

1. Understand the research topic — Listen to user's request and understand what they want to investigate
2. Collaborate with user — Discuss and clarify research questions together. Present 3-5 potential sub-questions or research angles for user to review
3. Define scope together — Discuss what to include/exclude, confirm boundaries of the research
4. Confirm report expectations — Ask user what sections they want, what depth, any specific focus areas
5. Get user confirmation — Present the draft plan to user and wait for approval before proceeding
6. Output: Research plan document — Only after user confirms, save to plans/research-plan-{timestamp}.json

Key principle: The plan is a collaboration between coordinator and user. Never proceed to Phase 2 without explicit user confirmation of the research plan.

Research plan format (JSON):

{
  "topic": "Original research topic",
  "research_questions": [
    "What are the latest breakthroughs in this field?",
    "Who are the leading organizations or researchers?",
    "What are the current limitations or challenges?",
    "What are the practical applications?"
  ],
  "scope": {
    "include": ["recent developments", "key players", "technical details"],
    "exclude": ["historical background before 2020", "unrelated applications"]
  },
  "report_requirements": {
    "sections": ["executive_summary", "findings", "conclusion", "references"],
    "depth": "comprehensive",
    "min_sources": 8,
    "focus_areas": ["technical analysis", "market landscape"]
  }
}

Research Plan Schema

Required fields:

• topic: Original research topic
• research_questions: Array of questions to investigate
• report_requirements: Object specifying output expectations

Optional fields:

• scope: Define boundaries of research (include/exclude)
• min_sources: Minimum sources to analyze (default: 8)
• max_sources: Maximum sources to analyze (default: 20)
• notes: Additional context or special instructions

Save plan to: plans/research-plan-{timestamp}.json

⚠️ WAIT FOR USER CONFIRMATION — Do not proceed to Phase 2 until user explicitly approves the research plan.

Key principle: The plan defines WHAT to research and WHAT the output should contain. It does NOT specify HOW to search (keywords, sources, rounds) - that is up to the research agent to determine dynamically.

Phase 2: Execute Research Plan

Launch sub agent with the research plan. Launch sub agent with session_spawn tool. Instruct subagent to use deep-research-executor to execute the plan EXPLICITLY.