deep-research

name: deep-research description: Conduct comprehensive, multi-source research and generate cited reports. Activate this skill when users want in-depth research on a topic, need synthesis across web and vault sources, or want a structured research report saved to their vault.

Deep Research

Conduct comprehensive, multi-round research using the deep_research tool. This produces structured markdown reports with citations by iteratively searching, reading, and synthesizing multiple sources.

When to Use Deep Research vs Google Search

Default to google_search for simple questions. Only use deep_research when the scope genuinely warrants multi-source synthesis.

How to Use

Call the deep_research tool with these parameters:

• topic (required) — The research question or topic. Be specific and descriptive.
• scope (optional) — Where to search:
  • both (default) — Web sources + vault notes. Best for most research.
  • web_only — Internet sources only. Use when the topic is outside the vault's scope.
  • vault_only — Vault notes only. Use to synthesize the user's own notes. Requires Semantic Vault Search to be enabled.
• outputFile (optional) — Path to save the report (e.g., Research/topic-name.md). A .md extension is added automatically if missing.

If both is requested but Semantic Vault Search isn't configured, the tool gracefully falls back to web-only research.

Best Practices

• Always suggest an outputFile — Research reports are valuable artifacts. Suggest saving to a logical location like Research/ or a project folder.
• Warn the user about timing — Deep research takes several minutes. Let the user know before invoking the tool.
• Choose the right scope:
  • User wants to understand a new external topic → web_only or both
  • User wants to synthesize their own notes → vault_only
  • User wants to combine personal knowledge with external research → both
• Write a clear topic — Frame the topic as a research question or focused description. "The evolution of transformer architectures in NLP" is better than "transformers".

Output Format

The tool generates a markdown report with:

• A title and generation date
• Synthesized findings organized into logical sections
• Inline citations linking to source URLs
• Source count summary

When outputFile is specified, the report is saved to the vault and added to the session context for follow-up discussion.

Tips

• After receiving a research report, offer to help the user extract action items, create summary notes, or link findings to existing vault content.
• For iterative research, suggest running multiple focused queries rather than one broad one.
• If the user wants to research something related to their existing notes, suggest both scope to combine external knowledge with their personal context.