deep-research

这段内容是审核时保存的快照。外部来源才是完整且最新的版本。

---
name: deep-research
description: "Deep research and discovery before building something new. Explores local projects for reusable code, researches competitors, reads forums and reviews, analyses plugin ecosystems, investigates technical options, and produces a comprehensive research brief. Three depths: focused (30 min), wide (1-2 hours), deep (3-6 hours). Triggers: 'research this', 'discovery', 'explore the space', 'what should I build', 'competitive analysis', 'before I start building', 'research before coding'. Not for cited fact-checking research reports (a separate harness does those); this is pre-build product discovery."
compatibility: claude-code-only
---

# Deep Research

Comprehensive research and discovery before building something new. Instead of jumping straight into code from training data, this skill goes wide and deep — local exploration, web research, competitor analysis, ecosystem signals, future-casting — and produces a research brief that makes the actual build 10x more productive.

## Depth Levels

The difference is **scope of ambition**, not just time.

| Depth | Purpose | Scope |
|-------|---------|-------|
| **focused** | Answer a specific question | One decision: "CodeMirror vs ProseMirror?" — targeted search, local scan, 1-2 comparisons. Produces a 1-page recommendation. |
| **wide** | Understand the space | Landscape for a new product or feature. Competitors, ecosystem, user needs, architecture options. Enough to write a spec. |
| **deep** | Plan a major build | Leave no stone unturned. Everything in wide PLUS library/component research, plugin ecosystems, GitHub issues mining, community sentiment, future-casting, technical deep-dives on every decision. Enough to drive weeks of coding. |

Default: **wide**

## Workflow

### 1. Understand the Intent

Ask the user:
- **What** are you building? (one sentence)
- **Why?** What problem does it solve? Who's it for?
- **Constraints?** Stack preferences, budget, timeline, must-haves?
- **Existing work?** Any projects to build on? Repos to look at?

If the user gives a brief prompt ("obsidian replacement on cloudflare"), that's enough — fill in the gaps through research.

### 2. Local Exploration

Scan the user's machine for relevant prior work:

```bash
# Find related projects by name/keyword
ls ~/Documents/ | grep -i "KEYWORD"

# Read CLAUDE.md of related projects for architecture context
find ~/Documents -maxdepth 2 -name "CLAUDE.md" -exec grep -l "KEYWORD" {} \;

# Check for reusable patterns, schemas, components
find ~/Documents -maxdepth 3 -name "schema.ts" -o -name "ARCHITECTURE.md" | head -20
```

For each related project found:
- Read CLAUDE.md (stack, architecture, gotchas)
- Check for reusable code (schemas, components, utilities, configs)
- Note what worked well and what didn't (from git history, TODO comments)

Also check:
- Basalt Cortex (`~/Documents/basalt-cortex/`) for related clients, contacts, knowledge facts
- `grep -rl "KEYWORD" ~/Documents/basalt-cortex/ --include="*.md"`

### 3. Web Research

Search broadly to understand the space:

- **Product category**: "markdown note app", "knowledge management tool for teams"
- **Competitors**: find top 5-10 by searching "best X", "X alternatives", "X vs Y"
- **Open source**: search GitHub for open-source alternatives, check star counts
- **Architecture**: "how to build X", "X tech stack", "building X with [framework]"
- **Technology docs**: check llms.txt, official docs for key technologies
- **Platform examples**: "built with Cloudflare Workers", "D1 full-text search example"
- **Tutorials and case studies**: "building a Y from scratch", "lessons learned building Z"

### 4. Ecosystem and Community Research (wide + deep)

Go beyond the core product — the ecosystem reveals what users actually need:

**Plugins and add-ons**:
- What plugins exist for major competitors? The most popular ones reveal what the core product lacks.
- e.g. Obsidian has 1800+ plugins — the top 20 tell you what Obsidian do