Deep Research Pro

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:

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:

Step 3: Execute Multi-Source Search

For EACH sub-question, run the DDG search script:

# Web search
/home/clawdbot/clawd/skills/ddg-search/scripts/ddg "" --max 8
News search (for current events)
/home/clawdbot/clawd/skills/ddg-search/scripts/ddg news "" --max 5

Search strategy:

Step 4: Deep-Read Key Sources

For the most promising URLs, fetch full content:

curl -sL "" | 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:

# [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)
Supporting data (Source Name)
2. [Second Major Theme]
...
3. [Third Major Theme]
...
Key Takeaways
[Actionable insight 1]
[Actionable insight 2]
[Actionable insight 3]
Sources
1. Title — [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:

mkdir -p ~/clawd/research/[slug]
Write report to ~/clawd/research/[slug]/report.md

Then deliver:

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

"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?"