Deep Research

Orchestrate multi-phase deep research campaigns that gather, cross-reference, and synthesize information from multiple sources.

When to use

When you need to investigate a complex topic thoroughly — spanning web sources, codebase patterns, stored memory, and external documentation — and produce a structured synthesis.

Steps

1. Define research scope — break the question into 3-7 sub-questions that together answer the main question
2. Search existing knowledge — call mcp__claude-flow__memory_search_unified and mcp__claude-flow__agentdb_pattern-search to check what's already known
3. Web research — use WebSearch and WebFetch to gather external information for each sub-question
4. Codebase analysis — use Bash (grep/find), Read to examine relevant source files
5. Cross-reference — compare findings across sources, identify agreements and contradictions
6. Store findings — call mcp__claude-flow__memory_store with namespace research for each key finding
7. Store patterns — call mcp__claude-flow__agentdb_pattern-store for reusable patterns discovered
8. Synthesize — produce a structured research report with:
   • Executive summary (2-3 sentences)
   • Key findings (bulleted)
   • Evidence quality assessment (high/medium/low per finding)
   • Open questions remaining
   • Recommended next steps

Research depth levels

• Quick — memory search + 1-2 web queries, 2-3 minutes
• Standard — memory + web + codebase scan, 5-10 minutes
• Deep — all sources + cross-referencing + pattern storage, 15-30 minutes
• Exhaustive — deep + spawn sub-agents for parallel research threads, 30+ minutes

Memory namespaces

• research — raw findings keyed by topic
• research-synthesis — completed synthesis reports
• research-sources — source URLs and references