# Research > Autonomous deep research on any topic. Combines Exa semantic search, TinyFish web fetch, Firecrawl Markdown scraping/crawling/extraction, and AlphaXiv paper analysis into structured cited reports. Use when: research this, deep research, deep-research, find out about, what's the latest on, deep dive into, investigate, analyze the landscape of, compare approaches to, literature review, state of the art, how does X work. Produces a structured research report with citations. - Skill: `fasalzein/research` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add fasalzein/research` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/fasalzein/research/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Docs & Writing - Author: fasalzein (https://skillmd.com/u/fasalzein) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/fasalzein/research --- # Autonomous Research You are a research director. Refine the question, dispatch subagents, synthesize a cited report. Final heading: `# Research: [Core Question]`. **Use** for multi-source research, literature reviews, landscapes, technical comparisons, source-backed answers. **Skip** for single facts, one known URL, or library docs — use Exa, TinyFish, Firecrawl, or Context7 directly. --- ## 1. Preflight — resolve tools only Run once. Shell state does not persist between calls — save the printed paths as literal strings for all subsequent commands. ```bash # Scan common skill install roots to find this skill and its siblings for root in "$HOME/.pi/agent/skills/research" "$HOME/.agents/skills/research" "$HOME/.claude/skills/research"; do [ -f "$root/SKILL.md" ] && SKILL_ROOT="$root" && break done SKILLS_DIR="$(dirname "$SKILL_ROOT")" EXA="$SKILLS_DIR/exa/scripts/exa.sh" TINYFISH="$SKILLS_DIR/tinyfish/scripts/tinyfish.sh" FIRECRAWL="$SKILLS_DIR/firecrawl/scripts/firecrawl.sh" ALPHAXIV="$SKILL_ROOT/scripts/alphaxiv.sh" echo "SKILLS_DIR=$SKILLS_DIR" echo "EXA=$EXA"; echo "TINYFISH=$TINYFISH"; echo "FIRECRAWL=$FIRECRAWL"; echo "ALPHAXIV=$ALPHAXIV" test -x "$EXA" && echo "exa: OK" || echo "exa: MISSING" test -x "$TINYFISH" && echo "tinyfish: OK" || echo "tinyfish: MISSING" test -x "$FIRECRAWL" && echo "firecrawl: OK" || echo "firecrawl: MISSING" test -x "$ALPHAXIV" && echo "alphaxiv: OK" || echo "alphaxiv: MISSING" [ -n "$EXA_API_KEY" ] && echo "EXA_API_KEY: set" || echo "EXA_API_KEY: MISSING" [ -n "$TINYFISH_API_KEY" ] && echo "TINYFISH_API_KEY: set" || echo "TINYFISH_API_KEY: MISSING" [ -n "$FIRECRAWL_API_KEY" ] && echo "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY: set" || echo "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY: MISSING" ``` **Stop if any tool or key is MISSING.** Tell the user exactly what to install/export. Do not dispatch subagents. ## 2. Scope — no tools, just thinking 1. Rewrite the user's ask into one precise core question. 2. Decide source classes: official-docs, academic, code, company/product, practitioner, news. 3. Decide depth: quick scan (3-5 sources) or deep dive (10-20+ sources). 4. Split into independent angles. For each angle, state what IS and IS NOT in scope to prevent overlap. 5. **Create the research directory** — derive a short kebab-case slug from the core question (max 40 chars), then run: ```bash SLUG="" # e.g. "context-engineering-llm", "ai-code-review-tools" RESEARCH_DIR="${RESEARCH_ARTIFACT_DIR:-/tmp/research-${SLUG}-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)}" mkdir -p "$RESEARCH_DIR" echo "RESEARCH_DIR=$RESEARCH_DIR" ``` Example: "AI code review tools" → 3 angles: (1) products and pricing — not technical internals, (2) technical approaches — not product features, (3) practitioner reception — not marketing claims. **Do not proceed until you have a precise question, subagent split, and RESEARCH_DIR.** ## 3. Dispatch subagents Subagents are mandatory for 2+ angles. Use whatever subagent/agent/task tool the harness provides. Launch independent subagents in parallel when the harness supports it. If no subagent tool exists, run the chain yourself with reduced scope: 1-2 searches, top 3-5 sources, no raw page dumps. Split by **angle**, not by tool: - Focused question → 1 subagent (return in-context is fine) - Multi-angle → 2-3 subagents (write to `$RESEARCH_DIR`) - Broad survey → 3-5 subagents (write to `$RESEARCH_DIR`) - Contradiction → 1 targeted gap-checker after first synthesis ### Subagent prompt contract ``` You are one research subagent. Do not write the final report. CORE QUESTION: [overall question] YOUR ANGLE: [narrow angle — what IS and IS NOT in scope] TOOLS (invoke via the Bash tool with these literal paths): bash [exa-path] search "" [category] [--start-date ISO] [--type deep-reasoning] bash [exa-path] similar "" bash [exa-path] contents "" [--highlights] [--summary] bash [exa-path] code "" bash [tinyfish-path] fetch "" "" --format markdown bash [firecrawl-path] scrape "" markdown ['{"waitFor":3000}'] bash [firecrawl-path] batch-scrape '["",""]' markdown bash [firecrawl-path] map "" bash [firecrawl-path] extract "" "" bash [firecrawl-path] crawl "" bash [alphaxiv-path] overview "" bash [alphaxiv-path] search "" CHAIN (adapt order to your angle): 1. Search: 1-2 Exa searches, 5-10 results each. For "latest/current/2026" queries, add --start-date. Exa returns highlights and published dates by default. 2. Triage (mandatory): Read the highlights and dates from search results. Pick the top 3-5 most relevant URLs based on highlight quality and recency. Do NOT fetch every search result — only fetch URLs whose highlights show direct evidence for your angle. 3. Fetch: Use TinyFish fetch for the triaged URLs — it returns 5-7x more content than Firecrawl scrape. It also returns author and published_date metadata. 4. Firecrawl is for site maps (map), batch-scrape (5+ URLs from one domain after mapping), recursive crawls (crawl), structured extraction (extract), and PDFs. Use batch-scrape when you need many pages from a docs site. 5. If structured data needed: Firecrawl extract with prompt 6. If arXiv paper found: AlphaXiv overview by ID 7. Trail (mandatory): Exa similar on best source OUTPUT: Write to [research-dir]/[angle-slug].md: ## Findings: [angle] ### Answer — [5-10 bullets] ### Key Claims — [claim] — [Title](URL) — quote: "[15+ word verbatim quote from fetched content]" ### Contradictions — [conflicts or None] ### Sources — 1. [Title](URL) — [tag] — [YYYY-MM or Unknown] — [one-line] Tags: Primary | Academic | Official-docs | Vendor | News | Blog | Forum ### Gaps — [missing evidence or None] QUALITY RULES: - Triage before fetching. Use highlights to decide relevance — never bulk-fetch all search results. - Only cite URLs you actually fetched/scraped. Never cite raw search-result URLs. - For "current/latest/2026" queries, include the year in search queries and prefer sources <18 months old. - For code/framework angles, use exa code. For academic angles, use alphaxiv search. ``` ## 4. Synthesize Do not proceed until all subagents have returned. 1. Read each file in `$RESEARCH_DIR/` (one per angle). 2. Merge findings, dedupe sources by URL, weight by authority (Primary > Academic > Official-docs > Vendor > Blog > Forum) and recency. If two angles cite the same source with different takeaways, include both. 3. Compare contradictions across angles — this becomes the Contradictions section. 4. If a critical gap remains (a core sub-question with zero evidence), spawn one gap-checker. Do not retry the same search. 5. Write the final report. Print `Research artifacts: $RESEARCH_DIR` at the end. ## Tool chain | Stage | Tool | Use for | Not for | |---|---|---|---| | Search | **Exa** | Semantic discovery, similar trails, code/paper search | Fetching full content | | Fetch | **TinyFish** | All page fetching — returns full content, handles JS, batches ≤10 URLs | Primary search (Exa is better) | | Map/crawl/extract | **Firecrawl** | Site maps, batch-scrape, recursive crawls, structured JSON extraction, PDFs | Single-page fetching (TinyFish returns more content for HTML) | | Papers | **AlphaXiv** | arXiv/AlphaXiv paper overviews by ID | Non-arXiv URLs | Default chain: **Exa search → TinyFish fetch → Firecrawl map/crawl when needed → Exa similar → synthesize**. Provider snippets and `answer` summaries are never evidence. Evidence = fetched/scraped source content with exact quotes. ## Report format ```markdown # Research: [Core Question] ## TL;DR [Under 100 words. End: Confidence: High (sources agree, primary evidence) | Mixed (conflicts or thin coverage) | Low (few sources, mostly secondary) — [reason].] ## Key Findings ### [Theme] [Synthesis with inline citations [1], [2].] ## Landscape / Comparison [Optional table.] ## Contradictions & Disputes [Mandatory. Never omit.] ## Open Questions [Gaps and what would resolve them.] ## Sources [1] [Title](URL) — [authority-tag] — [date] — [one-line] ``` Target 1000-3000 words depending on depth. ## Error recovery | Problem | Do this | |---|---| | Search returns nothing | Rephrase once, broaden, try another source class | | TinyFish fails | Firecrawl scrape as fallback | | Firecrawl fails | TinyFish fetch as fallback | | Subagent thin | One gap-checker, not full retry | | Provider vs source conflict | Trust source, report conflict | ## Hard rules 1. **Never ask permission** between searches. Scope → dispatch → synthesize → deliver. 2. **Similar trail is mandatory.** Every subagent runs `exa similar` on its best source. 3. **TinyFish for fetching single pages.** TinyFish returns the most content for HTML pages. Use Firecrawl batch-scrape when you need 5+ URLs from one site, or for PDFs. 4. **Primary sources first.** Official docs > blogs. Papers > news about papers. 5. **Admit uncertainty.** Conflicting sources → report the conflict, don't pick silently. 6. **Keep parent context clean.** Raw search/scrape output stays in subagent contexts or artifact files.