web-research

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# Web Research Skill

This skill provides guidance on conducting comprehensive web research. It emphasizes planning, efficient information gathering, and systematic synthesis of findings.

**Note:** This skill provides a methodology and best practices for web research. It does not include executable scripts or tools beyond what's available in your agent's toolset.

## When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

- Research complex topics requiring multiple information sources
- Gather and synthesize current information from the web
- Conduct comparative analysis across multiple subjects
- Produce well-sourced research reports with clear citations

## Research Process

### Step 1: Create and Save Research Plan

Before conducting research:

1. **Analyze the research question** - Break it down into distinct, non-overlapping subtopics

2. **Create a research plan** - Determine:
   - The main research question
   - 2-5 specific subtopics to investigate
   - Expected information from each subtopic
   - How results will be synthesized

**Planning Guidelines:**

- **Simple fact-finding**: 1-2 subtopics
- **Comparative analysis**: 1 subtopic per comparison element (max 3)
- **Complex investigations**: 3-5 subtopics

### Step 2: Gather Information

For each subtopic in your plan:

1. **Use available web search tools** to gather information with:
   - Clear, specific search queries
   - Target: 3-5 searches per subtopic maximum

2. **Organize findings** as you gather them

### Step 3: Synthesize Findings

After gathering information:

1. **Review all collected information** from your searches

2. **Synthesize the information** - Create a comprehensive response that:
   - Directly answers the original question
   - Integrates insights from all subtopics
   - Cites specific sources with URLs
   - Identifies any gaps or limitations

## Best Practices

- **Plan before searching** - Understand what you need to find and organize your approach
- **Clear subtopics** - Ensure each search has a distinct, non-overlapping scope
- **Systematic synthesis** - Review all findings before creating final response
- **Stop appropriately** - Don't over-research; 3-5 searches per subtopic is usually sufficient
- **Cite sources** - Always include URLs to sources in your final response

From DougTrajano/pydantic-ai-skills, MIT.

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