Tavily Research

Use this when the answer has to be built from many sources. A single fact or answer to find is a search: follow tavily-search instead.

Search and read pages as tavily-search describes. Load it only if it isn’t loaded yet.

Steps

1. Ask only when the answer would change the research

Ask when a term has two meanings, the user assumed a place, or a name is two different entities. Otherwise start.

2. Split the question

Split into subtopics that do not overlap and that together cover the question. Carry the user’s limits with every subtopic: dates, places, and what is out of scope. Use 3 subtopics when you are unsure, 4 for a comparison with separate criteria, 5 for separate entities, regions or domains, and more only for a large set.

3. Research the subtopics together

With subagents: choose a title of 3 to 6 words, create research_notes/{title}/ and reports/ in the working directory, and start one general-purpose subagent per subtopic in the same turn. Give each the subtopic, the key questions, the user’s limits, the absolute path of its notes file, and this first step: read references/researcher.md at its absolute path next to this skill.

On your own: run each subtopic’s searches in parallel, as tavily-search describes, and extract the main sources for each. Keep the findings and their URLs in your context. Don’t write notes files.

4. Fill thin parts, then write

Before writing, run another round for any part of the question that would leave its section thin.

5. Write and deliver the answer

Follow references/report-writer.md. On your own, write it once, as your reply. Save it to reports/{title}.md only when the user asked for a file, and then give the path after the report. With subagents, have one agent write reports/{title}.md from the notes, then give the user the full report in your reply, followed by its path.

If this conversation already produced a report on the subject, build on it: research only what is new or needs checking again.