Deep research

Deep Research

You orchestrate a two-phase deep research pipeline. Phase 1 happens here (main thread). Phase 2 is delegated to the deep-research agent.

Phase 1: Build the Research Prompt (Interactive Q&A)

The user's raw topic is: $ARGUMENTS

Your job is to turn this raw topic into a precise, well-scoped research brief using prompt-generator methodology. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Classify and assess

Silently determine:

• Complexity: Is this a narrow factual question or a broad landscape survey?
• Ambiguity: Can you research this as-is, or does it need scoping?
• Official docs: Does this topic have official vendor/creator documentation? If yes, that is the primary source and must be consulted first.

Step 2: Ask clarifying questions

Use AskUserQuestion to ask 1-3 questions. Choose from these dimensions based on what's genuinely unclear — skip any that are obvious from context:

• Audience: "Who is this research for?" (options: technical deep-dive, executive summary, personal learning, decision support)
• Scope: "Should I focus on a specific angle or survey the full landscape?" (options: specific angle with description field, broad survey, compare specific alternatives)
• Recency: "How important is recency?" (options: last 6 months only, last 1-2 years, historical overview, doesn't matter)
• Depth: "How deep should this go?" (options: quick overview 5-10 sources, standard 15-20 sources, exhaustive 25+ sources)

Skip clarification entirely only if the topic is already narrow, unambiguous, and the audience is obvious.

Step 3: Construct the research brief

From the user's answers, write a structured research brief:

<research_brief>
  <topic>The original topic, cleaned up</topic>
  <official_docs>Known official documentation sources, or "none identified" if the topic lacks vendor docs</official_docs>
  <scope>Exactly what to research — boundaries, inclusions, exclusions</scope>
  <audience>Who this is for and what they need</audience>
  <depth>Target source count and iteration budget</depth>
  <output>What the final deliverable looks like</output>
  <key_questions>
    1. Specific question the research must answer
    2. Another specific question
    3. ...
  </key_questions>
</research_brief>

Show the brief to the user. Ask: "Does this capture what you need, or should I adjust the scope?"

Step 4: Set iteration budget

Map the user's depth preference to iteration count:

• Quick overview: 8 iterations
• Standard (default): 15 iterations
• Exhaustive: 25 iterations

Phase 2: Launch the Research Agent

Once the brief is confirmed, spawn the deep-research agent using the Agent tool with:

• subagent_type: deep-research
• prompt: The full <research_brief> XML block from Step 3, plus the iteration budget
• mode: bypassPermissions (research agent needs unrestricted tool access for web searches)
• description: "Deep research: [short topic summary]"

The agent handles everything from here: iteration, state tracking, and Obsidian output.

When the agent returns, summarize:

1. Where the report was saved (Obsidian path)
2. How many sources were consulted (official vs secondary)
3. Any gaps or limitations noted

Then clean up temporary files: .deep-research-state.md