description: Dispatch exhaustive deep web research to the research profile. Triggered by "deep research", "ask web", or "research this". The research profile runs with the deep-web-research skill loaded — six-move flow, external ledger, mechanical saturation, disconfirmation, condensation from disk.
# deep-research — Exhaustive Web Research Delegation
## Overview
Dispatches a research question to the research profile, which runs with the `deep-web-research` skill loaded. The research agent does exhaustive, trail-following research — any tool, any trail, no rush — then condenses everything into a tight, concrete, evidence-backed answer. This agent just relays the result.
See `references/design-rationale.md` for the v2.0 architecture decisions and Claude validation findings. See `references/research-ladder-and-two-skill-pattern.md` for the three-tier research ladder (`searxng-smart-search` / `better-search` / `deep-research`), the two-skill contract pattern (dispatcher + methodology), and the "don't overcomplicate" rule that emerged from the operator's plan-build sessions. See `references/inventory-before-dispatch.md` for the SSH probe script and workflow for inventorying a target box before dispatching environment-specific research.
If the operator's question is ambiguous enough that the research agent would waste the first ~20 turns guessing, ask clarifying questions BEFORE dispatching. The user wants maximum clarity — err on the side of asking.
- **Default cap: 5 questions.** Most well-formed questions need 0–5.
- **Hard cap: 10 questions.** For complex, multi-branch research where precision matters.
- **Abort at 11+:** If you think you need more than 10, the question is under-specified. Stop and tell the operator: "This question has too many branches to dispatch cleanly. Can you narrow it to [specific scope]?" Do NOT fire 11+ questions.
**Scope dimensions to confirm before dispatch (high-value, often-missed):**
Beyond the question's subject, confirm any dimension that changes the *output shape* of the plan/research. Missing one forces a kill + re-dispatch mid-run, wasting the first session's turns. Known dimensions:
- **Hardware/environment target** — when the deliverable maps tools to specific hardware (e.g., "build a local pipeline on our hardware"), confirm *which* hardware before dispatch. Do not assume the full fleet from memory; the operator may be scoping to a single box. This is the #1 missed dimension.
- **Cloud vs. local vs. hybrid** — when a workflow could be replicated with cloud APIs, local self-hosted, or a mix, confirm which before dispatch.
- **Build-on-existing vs. fresh** — when the target environment already has partial tooling installed, confirm whether to reuse it or design from scratch.
These are NOT generic clarifying questions — they are scope axes specific to plan-building research. Ask at most one `clarify` round covering whichever of these are genuinely unresolved before dispatching.
**Multi-turn narrowing:** If after 1–2 rounds of clarifying questions the scope is still unclear, abandon the dispatch and ask the operator to rewrite the question with the scope made explicit. Do not loop.
- **Session_id capture pitfall (background dispatch):** When run as a background process, the output begins with a TUI banner (OS/hostname/IP block) + an initial reasoning block BEFORE the session_id line appears. Piping through `| head -20` can truncate the output before the session_id is reached. Use a larger head (`| head -50`) or, better, `grep -oE 'session_id: [a-f0-9-]+'` on the full log to extract it reliably. If the session_id is lost, `session_search` on the research profile may NOT find `-Q` quiet-mode sessions — in that case, do NOT re-dispatch Stage 3 of the validate-fix pipeline; apply validated corrections directly to the plan file yourself (you have the full plan text + validation report). This is equally correct and avoids a redundant 600-turn run.
- **Slug:** derived from the question (e.g., `minimax-m3-temperature-support`)
- **Format:** YAML frontmatter (question, date, sources, confidence) + markdown body with structured findings
- **After dispatch:** report the session_id and the expected output path to the user
- **When user asks for results:** use `session_search` on the research profile with the captured session_id, then relay the path — the user reads the file directly
The file is the single source of truth. Do not inline the research answer — it's always lossy for 100+ turn sessions.
- **Do NOT poll.** Do NOT call `session_search` on the research session to check progress.
- **Do NOT check.** Do NOT call `process wait` or `process poll` on the background process.
- **Do NOT background the wait.** The dispatch should return in seconds, not minutes — if you find yourself waiting, you did it wrong.
- **Do NOT auto-deliver.** Do NOT inline the answer. Do NOT push to a chat platform (Telegram/etc). Do NOT proactively surface results when the background process completes.
- When the user asks, use `session_search` on the research profile with the captured session_id to confirm completion, then report the file path: `~/workspace/research/results/<date>-<slug>.md`. Do NOT inline the answer — the file is the source of truth.
**This rule is operator-standing and applies to all research delegation skills** (`deep-research`, `better-search`, and any future research-delegation skill). Even "checking once after a delay" violates the rule. The operator reads the result file when they want to.
The research agent writes all findings to `/tmp/research-<sid>.md` (external ledger) and uses a phase gate file to enforce completion before condensing. Mechanical saturation checks (`grep -c`) prevent endless searching. Re-strategize checkpoints after Move 2 and every ~10 findings during Move 3 enable mid-research pivots.
## When NOT to Use (research ladder — pick the right tier)
The research ladder has three tiers. Pick the cheapest one that fits the question:
| Tier | Skill | Loops | Use when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light | `searxng-smart-search` (inline MCP) | 1 | Single factual lookup, single search suffices |
| Medium | `better-search` | 1–3 | "Look into X", "do a better search", 2–3 targeted searches with AI evaluation |
| Heavy | `deep-research` (this skill) | Many (200+) | "Map the X landscape", OSINT, exhaustive coverage, contradiction-hunting |
**Routing decision belongs to the operator, not the dispatcher.** If the question is "what is the capital of France?", use `searxng-smart-search` directly. If it's "look into the latest X", use `better-search`. Only escalate to `deep-research` when the operator explicitly wants exhaustive multi-source work.
Do NOT relay the research agent's response inline. The file at `~/workspace/research/results/<date>-<slug>.md` is the single source of truth. When the user asks for results, report the file path and let them read it directly. If the user asks for a specific finding, you may extract that one section from the file — but never inline the full answer.
The research agent self-reports are not verified fact. If it claims a file write, `read_file` the path to confirm. If it claims a specific finding, spot-check the source URL.
**HARD RULE: Same topic = resume. New topic = new session.**
- **Same topic / same line of research:** Always `--resume <session_id>`. Capture session_id from output line 1. Every follow-up in the same line of research MUST use `--resume <session_id>`. Starting fresh discards the research context and wastes turns.
- **New topic / new line of research:** Start a fresh session. Do NOT resume an unrelated session — the research context is polluted with the old topic and will produce confused results.
4.**600 turns is the ceiling, not the target.** The research agent should condense well before 600. Hitting the ceiling means it failed to condense. The operator's standing rule: 600 is a safety net, not a budget — "I just want a safety net. I would even be okay with 600 as a catch. I mostly want the job done right. Not concerned with time or tokens." Apply 600 for any plan-building, research, or evidence-based work; default to lower only for short factual lookups.
6.**Don't do the research yourself.** If the user triggers deep research, dispatch it. Don't run a few searches and call it done. This is the #1 failure mode: the agent runs 2-3 `mcp_searxng_searxng_web_search` calls, gets empty results, and gives up. That's not deep research — that's a casual lookup. If you catch yourself typing `mcp_searxng_searxng_web_search` for a deep research request, STOP. You're doing it wrong. Dispatch to the research profile.
7.**The methodology skill lives on the research profile.**`deep-web-research` is at `~/.hermes/profiles/research/skills/research/deep-web-research/SKILL.md`. It does NOT exist on the general profile. Don't search for it here — it won't be found. The general profile only has this delegation skill.
8.**Dispatcher/methodology coordination is a two-skill contract.** This skill (the dispatcher) caps clarifying questions at 5 default / 10 max and aborts the dispatch if the question is under-specified. The `deep-web-research` methodology skill (on the research profile) handles the same problem differently because it's headless — it can't ask the operator, so it aborts with a structured under-specification report naming the plausible interpretations. When updating one, update the other to match. Drift between the two causes the dispatcher to think the question is dispatchable while the methodology aborts it, or vice versa — both waste turns.
9.**Confirm hardware/environment scope before dispatching a hardware-mapped plan.** If the deliverable maps tools to specific hardware, confirm *which hardware* before dispatch — do not assume the full fleet from memory. The operator may be scoping to a single box (e.g., "I'll provide one LXC"). A 600-turn research artifact built against the wrong hardware scope has its architecture, parallelization, and GPU-scheduling sections wrong and must be killed and re-dispatched. Cheaper to ask one `clarify` round than to re-run 600 turns. (Learned 2026-07-07: dispatched a microdrama-pipeline plan against the full fleet; operator corrected to a single LXC; had to kill and re-dispatch.)
10.**Inventory the target box before dispatching environment-specific research.** When the plan must build on an existing install, SSH in and inventory the real state (GPU, RAM, disk, running services, installed models/nodes/packages) *before* dispatching, and pass the exact inventory into the research prompt. This lets the research agent research only the genuinely missing pieces instead of guessing or re-researching what's already installed. See `references/inventory-before-dispatch.md` for the probe script.
**Do NOT call `hermes -p research config set agent.reasoning_effort max` before dispatching.** That is a persistent side-effect — it writes to the research profile's `config.yaml` and the change survives the dispatch, affecting every subsequent research-profile session (interactive use, cron jobs, other research delegations).
**Correct approach:** The research profile's `agent.reasoning_effort` is already set to a thorough value by the operator (operator's standing rule: thoroughness > speed; thoroughness > tokens). Read it before dispatching to confirm it's at a high value, but do NOT write to it:
```bash
# Read-only check — confirm reasoning_effort is set
grep -E "default:|reasoning_effort:" ~/.hermes/profiles/research/config.yaml | head -5
# If it's NOT at max for the model, warn the operator — don't silently fix it
If the operator wants a different reasoning effort for this specific dispatch, they set it themselves; the dispatcher does not mutate other profiles' configs on every invocation. The "max" value the operator wants is achieved by the operator setting it once in `config.yaml`; the dispatcher reads and confirms, never writes.
This rule also applies to all research-dispatching skills (`better-search`, future research delegation skills). The dispatcher is not authorized to mutate the target profile's config.
**Operational guide (exact prompts, session handling, failure modes):** `references/research-validate-fix.md`. The summary below is the quick reference; the reference file is the deep version.
- Operator must apply the **Disagreement Scan** (see `ask-hermes` skill) to Stage 2 findings before applying them in Stage 3 — peer findings are input, not commands.
