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Agent skill

Brain-Augmented Web Research

by garrytan in garrytan/gbrain

Sends what your notes already know about a topic to Perplexity, so the cited web search reports only what is new, such as entity updates or deal changes.

MITAuto-check: notesResearch & Science

Install Brain-Augmented Web Research

skills CLI
$ npx skills add garrytan/gbrain --skill perplexity-research -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install garrytan/gbrain perplexity-research --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/garrytan/gbrain.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/perplexity-research .claude/skills/perplexity-research && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
perplexity-research
GitHub stars
31k
Token cost
~2k tokens
SKILL.md length
638 words
Files
2
Skills in repo
47
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Sends what your notes already know about a topic to Perplexity, so the cited web search reports only what is new, such as entity updates or deal changes.

  • Enriching a person or company page with current web information
  • SKILL.md covers What this does, When to use this vs other tools, Output structure and Invocation, plus 9 more sections
  • Reaches api.perplexity.ai; needs PERPLEXITY_API_KEY
  • Checking what changed about a topic since the brain was last updated

What it does

The agent first pulls existing context about a topic from the brain with gbrain, then passes that context into a Perplexity query. Perplexity searches and reads several pages, synthesizes them with citations, and concentrates on the gap between what the brain holds and what the web says now. The skill is plain markdown instructions, so the agent calls the Perplexity API directly or uses a perplexity CLI when the host provides one.

Results are saved as a research page in the brain with a defined structure, and every claim is expected to carry a verifiable citation. Two presets are described: low for deep analysis such as entity enrichment and deal research, and fast for quick lookups, bulk monitoring and cron jobs where cost matters more than depth. Low is the default. Perplexity publishes no fixed per-request price for presets, so the skill says to check its pricing page before bulk runs. Simple URL fetches and brain-only lookups go to other tools.

When your agent uses it

  • Enriching a person or company page with current web information
  • Checking what changed about a topic since the brain was last updated
  • Monitoring a deal or market for new developments with sources

Example prompts

  • “Update the brain page for Acme Robotics with anything new from the web, with citations.”
  • “What changed this month on the Series B deal we track? Show only the difference.”
  • “Run a fast bulk freshness check on the companies in my watchlist.”

Requirements

  • Access to the Perplexity API, or a perplexity CLI
  • The gbrain CLI and an existing brain

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit fc54831. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are bash and markdown).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

    • api.perplexity.ai

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names these keys or tokens, usually read from environment variables:

    • PERPLEXITY_API_KEY

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Brain-Augmented Web Research loads about 2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 92 tokens; SKILL.md has 638 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~92
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check: notes

The automated check noted patterns worth knowing about, such as sudo or a known installer.

  • NoteMentions a .env fileSKILL.md:191
    `~/.gbrain/.env`).

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from garrytan/gbrain at commit fc54831, republished under its MIT licence (© garrytan). 638 words, ~2,038 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/perplexity-research/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
perplexity-research
description
Brain-augmented web research. Sends brain context about a topic to Perplexity, which searches the web with citations and returns what is NEW vs what the brain already knows. Use for entity enrichment, current-state checks, deal monitoring, and freshness deltas. NOT for simple URL fetches (use web_fetch) or brain-only queries (use gbrain query).
version
0.1.0
triggers
perplexity research, perplexity-research, what's new about, current state of, web research, what changed about, surface new developments
mutating
true
writes_pages
true
writes_to
research/

perplexity-research — Brain-Augmented Web Research

Convention: see conventions/quality.md for citation rules; every claim from web research lands with a verifiable citation, not a paraphrase.

Convention: see conventions/brain-first.md for the lookup chain. This skill ENFORCES brain-first by sending brain context as part of the Perplexity prompt — the web search focuses on the delta between brain knowledge and current web state.

What this does

Combines existing brain knowledge with Perplexity's web search. The agent sends brain context about a topic into a Perplexity query; Perplexity searches + reads + synthesizes multiple pages with citations, focused on what's NEW relative to the supplied context.

The key insight: Perplexity doesn't just search — it reads and synthesizes with citations. By sending brain context in the instructions, it knows what you already know, so it surfaces the delta instead of repeating settled fact.

When to use this vs other tools

NeedUse
Deep research with citationsThis skill — Perplexity + Opus
Quick URL contentweb_fetch
Brain-only lookupgbrain query / gbrain search
Real-time social monitoringexternal X / social-media collectors
Structured data lookup against a trackerskills/data-research/SKILL.md

Output structure

The research output lands as a brain page under research/<slug>.md with this structure:

markdown
---
title: "[Topic] — Research [YYYY-MM-DD]"
type: research
date: YYYY-MM-DD
brain_context_slugs: ["pages whose context was sent to Perplexity"]
recency_filter: "[hour|day|week|month|none]"
---

# [Topic] — Research [YYYY-MM-DD]

> Executive summary: 2-3 sentences on the delta between brain knowledge
> and current web state.

## Key New Developments
What's changed since the brain was last updated on this topic.

## Confirming Signals
Web evidence validating existing brain knowledge.

## Contradictions or Updates
Things that conflict with the brain — these need a closer look.

## Recommended Brain Updates
Specific page updates the user might want to make based on this research.
Each item: which page, what to add or change, source URL.

## Citations
- [Source title](URL) — accessed YYYY-MM-DD
- [Source title](URL) — accessed YYYY-MM-DD
- ...

Invocation

The skill is markdown agent instructions; the agent uses Perplexity's API directly (or a host-provided perplexity CLI if installed):

bash
# 1. Pull brain context
gbrain get <slug>                    # or
gbrain query "<topic keywords>"

# 2. Compose the Perplexity query with brain context inline:
#    """
#    Topic: <topic>
#    Brain context (what we already know): <embedded gbrain content>
#    Find: what's NEW since 2026-MM-DD that the brain doesn't reflect.
#    Cite every claim.
#    """

# 3. Call Perplexity's Agent API (or the host's perplexity binary). The
#    Sonar chat-completions endpoint (/chat/completions with
#    "model": "sonar-pro") is being retired and refuses migrated accounts
#    with 403 agent_api_migration_required; use POST /v1/agent:
#    curl https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/agent \
#      -H "Authorization: Bearer $PERPLEXITY_API_KEY" \
#      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
#      -d '{"preset": "low", "instructions": "Cite every claim.", "input": "..."}'
#    Read the answer from the output item with "type": "message" (SDKs
#    expose it as output_text) and the citations from the search results
#    in the output array; inline [n] markers refer to them.

# 4. Write the structured research page via put_page:
gbrain put research/<slug>      # via the put_page operation

# 5. Cross-link entities mentioned (people, companies) per Iron Law.

Presets

Agent API presetReplacesUse when
"preset": "low"Sonar ProDeep analysis, entity enrichment, deal research (multi-step search)
"preset": "fast"SonarQuick lookups, bulk monitoring, briefing pipelines

Default to low. Drop to fast for bulk / cron contexts where cost matters more than depth. Perplexity does not publish a fixed per-request price for presets; check its pricing page before running bulk jobs.

Integration patterns

Entity enrichment

Called by skills/enrich/SKILL.md when an entity page (person, company) needs current web context:

bash
BRAIN=$(gbrain get people/<slug> 2>/dev/null)
# Send <slug>'s page content as brain_context to Perplexity, get current
# news / role / context, then update the brain page with what's new.
Deal / company monitoring (cron)

For each active item under deals/ or companies/:

bash
# Weekly: pull recent news per company; flag changes for review.
Morning briefing

Replace raw web_fetch calls in briefing pipelines with this skill so the agent doesn't re-narrate already-known facts.

Recency filter

Pass the recency filter on the web search tool: "tools": [{"type": "web_search", "filters": {"search_recency_filter": "week"}}] with hour | day | week | month | year. Useful for news-cycle topics; omit for evergreen research. Record the value as recency_filter in the page frontmatter.

Show full SKILL.md (278 more words)Show less

When it fails

Follow the agent operator protocol for any gbrain error code, exit code, [AGENT] block or notice block. Specific to this skill:

  • PERPLEXITY_API_KEY missing or rejected: tell the user the web arm cannot run; answer from the brain only and say so.
  • rate_limited: retry after the stated delay; for bulk work drop to the cheaper model rather than looping.
  • The brain-context search is empty with a degraded notice: the "what's new vs what the brain knows" diff is unreliable; say the brain side was keyword-only.

Anti-Patterns

  • ❌ Sending NO brain context. Then it's just a search — use web_fetch instead.
  • ❌ Truncating the brain context. The whole point is "knows what you know." Send dense context.
  • ❌ Discarding citations. Every claim in the output must have a URL.
  • ❌ Skipping the cross-link step when entities are mentioned. Iron Law.

Environment

  • PERPLEXITY_API_KEY set in the agent's environment (or in ~/.gbrain/.env).
  • Optional: install Perplexity's official CLI for richer streaming output.
  • skills/academic-verify/SKILL.md — wraps perplexity-research for citation-verified academic claim checking
  • skills/enrich/SKILL.md — calls perplexity-research as part of the entity-enrichment loop
  • skills/data-research/SKILL.md — structured-data trackers (different shape: parameterized YAML recipes, not free-form research)

Contract

This skill guarantees:

  • Routing matches the canonical triggers in the frontmatter.
  • Output written under the directories listed in writes_to: (when applicable).
  • Conventions referenced (quality.md, brain-first.md, _brain-filing-rules.md) are followed.
  • Privacy contract preserved: no real names, no fork-specific filesystem path literals, no upstream-fork references.

The full behavior contract is documented in the body sections above; this section exists for the conformance test.

Output Format

The skill's output shape is documented inline in the body sections above (see "Output", "Brain page format", or equivalent). The literal section header here exists for the conformance test (test/skills-conformance.test.ts).

© garrytan, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file in skills/perplexity-research of garrytan/gbrain.

  • SKILL.md
  • routing-eval.jsonl

Open the folder on GitHubat commit fc54831

Compare with similar skills

Brain-Augmented Web Research next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Brain-Augmented Web Research compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Brain-Augmented Web Research this skillgarrytan/gbrain31k—~2kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Bmad Deep Recondelorenj/mcp-server-trello445—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Deep Researchjuanandresgs/claude-ctrl193—~3.1kAutomated safety check: NotesNone
Weekly Signal DiffNateBJones-Projects/OB14.7k—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Research LookupK-Dense-AI/claude-scientific-writer2.4k2 repos~3.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Perplexity SearchescapeWu/perplexity-ai170—~1.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Brain-Augmented Web Research

What does Brain-Augmented Web Research do?

Sends what your notes already know about a topic to Perplexity, so the cited web search reports only what is new, such as entity updates or deal changes. The agent first pulls existing context about a topic from the brain with gbrain, then passes that context into a Perplexity query. Perplexity searches and reads several pages, synthesizes them with citations, and concentrates on the gap between what the brain holds and what the web says now.

When should I use Brain-Augmented Web Research?

Brain-Augmented Web Research fits situations like: enriching a person or company page with current web information; checking what changed about a topic since the brain was last updated; monitoring a deal or market for new developments with sources.

How do I install Brain-Augmented Web Research in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add garrytan/gbrain --skill perplexity-research -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/perplexity-research in garrytan/gbrain) into .claude/skills/perplexity-research in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Brain-Augmented Web Research in Codex?

Run `npx skills add garrytan/gbrain --skill perplexity-research -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/perplexity-research in garrytan/gbrain) into .agents/skills/perplexity-research in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Brain-Augmented Web Research in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add garrytan/gbrain --skill perplexity-research -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/perplexity-research, .gemini/skills/perplexity-research, .github/skills/perplexity-research and .opencode/skills/perplexity-research in your project.

What does Brain-Augmented Web Research need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Brain-Augmented Web Research needs credentials named PERPLEXITY_API_KEY. Our summary lists: Access to the Perplexity API, or a perplexity CLI; The gbrain CLI and an existing brain.

Does Brain-Augmented Web Research access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. In commands or code: api.perplexity.ai; the agent is likely to contact it when it follows the instructions. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Brain-Augmented Web Research safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found notes only (mentions a .env file), nothing it rates as a warning. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Brain-Augmented Web Research use?

Brain-Augmented Web Research is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Brain-Augmented Web Research use?

About 2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 8.2k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Brain-Augmented Web Research?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Brain-Augmented Web Research: Bmad Deep Recon (delorenj/mcp-server-trello, 445 stars), Deep Research (juanandresgs/claude-ctrl, 193 stars), Weekly Signal Diff (NateBJones-Projects/OB1, 4.7k stars) and Research Lookup (K-Dense-AI/claude-scientific-writer, 2.4k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Brain-Augmented Web Research?

garrytan (a GitHub user) maintains it in garrytan/gbrain, which has 30,701 GitHub stars. The repository holds 47 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: garrytan/gbrain on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.