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coreyhaines31coreyhaines31/makerskills/skills/deep-research/SKILL.md

deep-research

Skill873 starsChanged 25 days agoMITView on GitHub

When you want multi-source, multi-step research on a topic — competitor research before a sales call, market research for a new business idea, positioning angles, due diligence on a partnership or podcast guest, tech decision research (which DB, which auth), or any \"I need to actually understand X.\" Combines web search, URL fetch, agent-browser, last30days (Reddit/X/YouTube/HN/web recency), memory, and Notion. Outputs a structured brief with citations, contradictions, gaps, and recommended next steps. Archives every research run to ~/.config/makerskills/deep-research/archive/ so past work is searchable. Triggers on \"/deep-research,\" \"research X,\" \"investigate X,\" \"do a deep dive on X,\" \"look into X,\" \"what's actually happening with X,\" \"due diligence on X,\" \"validate this market.\" Differs from a one-shot web search: this is multi-pass with verification. Not for standing monitoring (radar) or pulling one post or video (social-fetch, watch-video).

  • Reads credentials

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

6 rules. 0 are common, 5 are distinctive, and 1 is very specific to this project.

  • 0

    Common

    Most of the 175 edited versions we read keep these.

  • 5

    Distinctive

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 1

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Distinctive:

    Run discovery passes in parallel where possible.

    line 35
  2. Distinctive:

    Run each chosen source. For each result, capture:

    line 39
  3. Distinctive:

    Don't synthesize yet — just collect.

    line 45
  4. Very specific:

    Write the brief to <archive dir>/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<slug>.md so it's grep-able forever.

    line 96
  5. Distinctive:

    Always cite: Every claim in the brief needs a source pointer.

    line 119
  6. Distinctive:

    No padding: If the answer is one paragraph, return one paragraph.

    line 122

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 175 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

/deep-research — Multi-source research with archive

Plans, executes, and synthesizes research from multiple sources. Archives the output so the corpus compounds.

Step 1 — Frame the question

Restate the research question in one tight sentence. If ambiguous, ask the user:

  • What's the decision this research will inform?
  • What's the minimum useful answer? (Saves over-researching.)
  • Any sources to prioritize or avoid?

Output: **Research question:** <one sentence>

Step 2 — Plan the sources

Pick from this menu based on the question type. Note which sources you'll hit and why.

SourceWhen to useHow (tool names vary by agent)
Web search (Google)Authoritative articles, docs, official statementsYour agent's web search (e.g. WebSearch in Claude Code)
/last30daysWhat people are actually saying right now — Reddit, X, YouTube, HN, web recencyThe last30days skill, if installed. Otherwise skip it and note the gap
Specific URLsWhen the user hands over starting URLsYour agent's URL fetch (e.g. WebFetch), or curl + defuddle
Browsable pages (auth-walled, JS-heavy)Pricing pages, product tours, profilesagent-browser CLI (any agent with a shell)
MemoryPrior research / decisions / context the user already capturedyour agent's memory, or grep ${MAKERSKILLS_MEMORY:-${MAKERSKILLS_CONFIG:-$HOME/.config/makerskills}/memory}/
NotionIf the topic touches a known Notion workspaceDirect Notion API (key in $NOTION_API_KEY, see reference_notion_api.md)
Research archivePrior /deep-research runs that touched this topicgrep ${MAKERSKILLS_CONFIG:-$HOME/.config/makerskills}/deep-research/archive/

Run discovery passes in parallel where possible. Sequential only when one source needs another's output (e.g., agent-browser a URL discovered by web search).

Step 3 — Execute discovery

Run each chosen source. For each result, capture:

  • The source (URL or system)
  • 1–3 sentence summary of what was said
  • Date / recency
  • Confidence in the source (high/medium/low)

Don't synthesize yet — just collect.

Step 4 — Synthesize

  1. Group findings by theme or sub-question
  2. Contradiction check — flag anywhere sources disagree. Don't average them; surface the disagreement.
  3. Confidence: high (multiple independent sources agree), medium (one strong source or several weak), low (single anecdote or speculation)
  4. Gaps: what would change the answer? What's NOT in the corpus?

Step 5 — Output the brief

Use this template:

# Research: <question>

**Date:** <YYYY-MM-DD>
**Decision this informs:** <one line>
**Confidence overall:** high / medium / low

## TL;DR
<2–4 sentences with the answer>

## Key findings

### 1. <Finding>
<2–4 sentences>. Sources: [1], [3], [5]

### 2. <Finding>
...

## Contradictions / uncertainty
- <where sources disagree, with each side cited>

## Gaps
- <what's missing from the corpus>
- <what to research next to close the gap>

## Recommended next steps
1. <action>
2. <action>

## Sources
[1] <Title> — <URL or system> (<date>) — <confidence>
[2] ...

Step 6 — Archive

Archives live in ${MAKERSKILLS_CONFIG:-$HOME/.config/makerskills}/deep-research/archive/ (create the directory if missing). Never write archives inside the skill's own folder — skill installs and upgrades re-sync from source and wipe anything saved there. Migration: if this skill's folder contains an old references/research-archive/ with user entries, move those files into the archive directory first.

Write the brief to <archive dir>/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<slug>.md so it's grep-able forever. Slug = kebab-case of the topic.

Also append a one-line entry to <archive dir>/INDEX.md (create if missing):

- 2026-06-15 — [<topic>](./<filename>.md) — <one-line TL;DR>

Step 7 — Surface

After archiving:

  • Show the full brief in chat
  • Tell the user the archive path
  • Offer: "Push to Notion or save to a project's docs?"

Composes with

  • business-brainstorm — calls this skill during the market validation step
  • /domain — when research includes "is the .com available"
  • /last30days — one of the data sources

Notes on quality

  • Always cite. Every claim in the brief needs a source pointer.
  • Recency matters — note dates on each source. For fast-moving topics (AI, startups), de-weight sources >12 months old.
  • Don't trust a single source for high-stakes claims. Re-search until you have at least 2 independent corroborations or surface the uncertainty.
  • No padding. If the answer is one paragraph, return one paragraph. The template is a maximum, not a minimum.

Download now (ZIP)

  • Other versions194 projects use a version of this.

    Word for word · 0

    None found.

    Edited · 0

    None found.

    Wrote their own version · 194

    1. affaan-m/ECC★ 246ksame name
    2. bytedance/deer-flow★ 85ksame name
    3. Imbad0202/academic-research-skills★ 55ksame name
    4. THU-MAIC/OpenMAIC★ 42ksame name
    5. genspark-ai/genoffice★ 11ksame name
    6. HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills★ 11ksame name
    7. advaitpaliwal/feynman★ 10ksame name
    8. companion-inc/feynman★ 10ksame name
    9. getcompanion-ai/feynman★ 10ksame name
    10. jordan-gibbs/hyperresearch★ 4.2ksame name

    184 more not listed

    How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.

  • Used alongsideProjects with it also use community-led-growth, ph-community-outreach and 10 more.

    Other files people use alongside this one.

    Files found in the same public projects as a version of this one, more often than they turn up anywhere else. Each project counts once, large collections count for less, and this file's own repository is left out.
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      Also in 5 projects that use this

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      Also in 10 projects that use this

    • W-MoorerSkill

      academic-pipeline

      Orchestrator for the full academic research pipeline: research -> write -> integrity check -> review -> revise -> re-review -> re-revise -> final integrity check -> finalize. Coordinates deep-research, academic-paper, and academic-paper-reviewer into a seamless 10-stage workflow with mandatory integrity verification, two-stage peer review, and reproducible quality gates. Triggers on: academic pipeline, research to paper, full paper workflow, paper pipeline, end-to-end paper, research-to-publication, complete paper workflow.

      Also in 9 projects that use this

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      Also in 5 projects that use this

    • stophobiaSkill

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      Also in 4 projects that use this

    • +4 more from nicepkg
    • +1 more from W-Moorer
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