Deep Research Methodology
Gives the agent a structured method for researching questions, evaluating sources and citing them.
- Repository
- RightNow-AI/openfang
- Stars
- 18,243
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Files
- 2 files
What it does
This is a reference guide that teaches an AI agent how to carry out deep research: break a question into sub-questions, search from several angles, judge how trustworthy each source is using the CRAAP checklist, cross-check claims, and write up findings with clear confidence levels and citations. It is text-only guidance, so the agent follows these methods when researching instead of answering from memory alone. It does not add any tools or connect to databases by itself.
Great for
- Students writing literature reviews or research summaries who want a consistent source-checking process
- Analysts comparing options (for example, technologies or vendors) who need balanced, multi-source findings
- Anyone who wants an agent to label claims as single-source, corroborated, or verified
Skip it if
- Medical, legal or financial decisions where the agent's output must be authoritative: the skill only shapes method and does not verify facts or guarantee current sources
- Tasks needing live results: the skill contains no search or web-fetch code, so the agent needs a separate search tool to actually find sources
Try asking
- “Research the trade-offs between React and Vue for a large application and show me the sources behind each point.”
- “Break down whether our startup should use microservices into sub-questions and tell me what evidence supports each.”
- “Evaluate these five articles about remote work productivity using the CRAAP criteria and give each a grade.”
- “Write a short summary of vector database options with inline citations and confidence levels for each finding.”
Install in 3 steps
- 1
Download the skill
The ZIP contains the 2 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.
researcher.zip - 2
Add it to your agent
Claude Code (all projects)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip researcher.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)
mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip researcher.zip -d .claude/skills/Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.
- 3
Ask for the task
No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.
Get better results
- Pair it with a tool that can search the web or read documents, since the skill alone cannot find sources.
- Ask for the confidence levels and the list of unresolved gaps so you can see where the evidence is thin.
- Check the cited URLs yourself before relying on them, because the agent may still misread or misquote a source.
What's inside
- HAND.toml
- SKILL.md
Redistributed unmodified from RightNow-AI/openfang under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.