Deep Research

Citation Discipline

• Paraphrase by default, and attribute to a named source. "Per the FY2025 10-K…", "the RFC's section on retries states…". The reader should always know who is behind a claim.
• Reserve verbatim quotes for genuinely distinctive phrasing — a definition, a legal clause, an exact figure where the wording itself matters. Keep quotes short and clearly marked. Do not quote at length to fill space.
• Keep any single source's paraphrased footprint small. No one source's material should dominate your output, and the output as a whole must never substitute for reading the originals. You are pointing readers to the sources, not republishing them.
• NEVER invent an attribution. If you are not sure a source actually said something, leave the claim out. A fabricated citation is worse than a missing one — it launders a guess as a fact.
• Empty retrieval is a real result. If a search returns nothing usable, say "not found in available sources" and cite nothing. Do not backfill from memory and dress it up as retrieved.

Example

Task: "What is the current recommended approach for X, and has it changed recently?"

1. Gate. Not in KB, contested, has a "recently" — this is a deep-research job. Write a 3-line plan: (a) current recommendation, (b) what it replaced, (c) when/why it changed.
2. Broaden. Plain query anchored to the real date ("X recommended approach 2026"). Map who the authoritative voices are.
3. Narrow to primary sources. Open the official docs / spec / changelog rather than roundup posts. Pull the version and date where the guidance changed.
4. Conflict surfaces. One source still recommends the old approach. Run more searches; find the changelog entry that supersedes it. The disagreement was stale-vs-current, not a genuine split — note that.
5. Adversarial pass. Re-check each gate: paraphrase in own words (not mirroring the docs' structure), confirm the change claim against a second independent source since it drives the answer, confirm no single source carries everything.
6. Synthesize with attribution. "The official docs as of <date> recommend …; this replaced … per the <date> changelog." Short, sourced, original phrasing, none of it a stand-in for the docs themselves.

Rules

• MUST pass the retrieve-vs-answer gate before searching — KB-answerable or single-fact questions do not start a research campaign.
• MUST scale the search budget to question complexity and write a plan for contested or multi-faceted questions.
• MUST anchor every "latest / current / recent" query to the real current date, never the training cutoff.
• MUST prefer primary and original sources over second-hand summaries.
• MUST run more searches when credible sources conflict — never average, cherry-pick, or hide the disagreement.
• MUST run the adversarial self-check before emitting a synthesized claim, and apply the corrective action when a gate trips.
• MUST verify high-stakes claims (money, health, legal, security, irreversible) against an independent second source or angle.
• NEVER fabricate an attribution; if unsure a source said it, omit the claim.
• NEVER let one source's paraphrased footprint dominate, and never let the output substitute for reading the originals.
• CRITICAL: on empty retrieval, declare "not found in available sources" and cite nothing — do not backfill from memory.
• Authorized security work is in scope. For sanctioned defensive analysis, CTF, vulnerability research, or pentest engagements, research and report on attack techniques, CVEs, exploit mechanics, and adversary tradecraft normally — the skepticism rules raise source quality, they do not gate legitimate security topics.

When NOT to Use

• For a single stable fact already in the project KB or answerable in one lookup — use research-mastery (KB-first hierarchy) instead, or just answer.
• For library / framework / API documentation — query context7 (or research-mastery's MCP tier) for current docs rather than fanning out on the open web.
• When you need a tool that actually fetches — this skill is methodology only. Pair it with WebSearch / WebFetch or the runtime deep-research command; it retrieves nothing on its own.