Introduction
# Deep Research Pro 🔬
A powerful, self-contained deep research skill that produces thorough, cited reports from multiple web sources. No paid APIs required — uses DuckDuckGo search.
## How It Works
When the user asks for research on any topic, follow this workflow:
### Step 1: Understand the Goal (30 seconds)
Ask 1-2 quick clarifying questions: - "What's your goal — learning, making a decision, or writing something?" - "Any specific angle or depth you want?"
If the user says "just research it" — skip ahead with reasonable defaults.
### Step 2: Plan the Research (think before searching)
Break the topic into 3-5 research sub-questions. For example: - Topic: "Impact of AI on healthcare" - What are the main AI applications in healthcare today? - What clinical outcomes have been measured? - What are the regulatory challenges? - What companies are leading this space? - What's the market size and growth trajectory?
### Step 3: Execute Multi-Source Search
For EACH sub-question, run the DDG search script:
```bash # Web search /home/clawdbot/clawd/skills/ddg-search/scripts/ddg "<sub-question keywords>" --max 8
# News search (for current events) /home/clawdbot/clawd/skills/ddg-search/scripts/ddg news "<topic>" --max 5 ```
**Search strategy:** - Use 2-3 different keyword variations per sub-question - Mix web + news searches - Aim for 15-30 unique sources total - Prioritize: academic, official, reputable news > blogs > forums
### Step 4: Deep-Read Key Sources
For the most promising URLs, fetch full content:
```bash curl -sL "<url>" | python3 -c " import sys, re html = sys.stdin.read() # Strip tags, get text text = re.sub('<[^>]+>', ' ', html) text = re.sub(r'\s+', ' ', text).strip() print(text[:5000]) " ```
Read 3-5 key sources in full for depth. Don't just rely on search snippets.
### Step 5: Synthesize & Write Report
Structure the report as:
```markdown # [Topic]: Deep Research Report *Generated: [date] | Sources: [N] | Confidence: [High/Medium/Low]*
## Executive Summary [3-5 sentence overview of key findings]
## 1. [First Major Theme] [Findings with inline citations] - Key point ([Source Name](url)) - Supporting data ([Source Name](url))
## 2. [Second Major Theme] ...
## 3. [Third Major Theme] ...
## Key Takeaways - [Actionable insight 1] - [Actionable insight 2] - [Actionable insight 3]
## Sources 1. [Title](url) — [one-line summary] 2. ...
## Methodology Searched [N] queries across web and news. Analyzed [M] sources. Sub-questions investigated: [list] ```
### Step 6: Save & Deliver
Save the full report: ```bash mkdir -p ~/clawd/research/[slug] # Write report to ~/clawd/research/[slug]/report.md ```
Then deliver: - **Short topics**: Post the full report in chat - **Long reports**: Post the executive summary + key takeaways, offer full report as file
## Quality Rules
1. **Every claim needs a source.** No unsourced assertions. 2. **Cross-reference.** If only one source says it, flag it as unverified. 3. **Recency matters.** Prefer sources from the last 12 months. 4. **Acknowledge gaps.** If you couldn't find good info on a sub-question, say so. 5. **No hallucination.** If you don't know, say "insufficient data found."
## Examples
``` "Research the current state of nuclear fusion energy" "Deep dive into Rust vs Go for backend services in 2026" "Research the best strategies for bootstrapping a SaaS business" "What's happening with the US housing market right now?" ```
## For Sub-Agent Usage
When spawning as a sub-agent, include the full research request and context:
``` sessions_spawn( task: "Run deep research on [TOPIC]. Follow the deep-research-pro SKILL.md workflow. Read /home/clawdbot/clawd/skills/deep-research-pro/SKILL.md first. Goal: [user's goal] Specific angles: [any specifics] Save report to ~/clawd/research/[slug]/report.md When done, wake the main session with key findings.", label: "research-[slug]", model: "opus" ) ```
## Requirements
- DDG search script: `/home/clawdbot/clawd/skills/ddg-search/scripts/ddg` - curl (for fetching full pages) - No API keys needed!