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Deep Research

  • 1.4k installs
  • 255 repo stars
  • Updated February 27, 2026
  • lingzhi227/agent-research-skills

deep-research is an agent skill for conduct systematic academic literature reviews in 6 phases, producing structured notes, a curated paper database, and a synthesized final report. output is organized by phase.

About

The deep-research skill is designed for conduct systematic academic literature reviews in 6 phases, producing structured notes, a curated paper database, and a synthesized final report. Output is organized by phase. Installation: ~/.claude/skills/deep-research/ — scripts, references, and this skill definition. Output: .//Users/lingzhi/Code/deep-research-output/{slug}/ relative to the current working directory. Invoke when the user asks about deep research or related SKILL.md workflows.

  • "Research a topic", "literature review", "find papers about", "survey papers on".
  • "Deep dive into [topic]", "what's the state of the art in [topic]".
  • Uses /research <topic> slash command.
  • Jumping from Phase 2 to Phase 5/6 (skipping Deep Dive and Code).
  • Writing synthesis or report before completing Phase 3 deep reading.

Deep Research by the numbers

  • 1,426 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • +49 installs in the week ending Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion tracking)
  • Ranked #826 of 16,546 AI & Agent Building skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Security screen: HIGH risk (skills.sh audit)
  • Data as of Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
At a glance

deep-research capabilities & compatibility

Capabilities
"research a topic", "literature review", "find p · "deep dive into [topic]", "what's the state of t · uses /research <topic> slash command · jumping from phase 2 to phase 5/6 (skipping deep
From the docs

What deep-research says it does

Conduct systematic academic literature reviews in 6 phases, producing structured notes, a curated paper database, and a synthesized final report. Output is organized by phase for c
SKILL.md
Conduct systematic academic literature reviews in 6 phases, producing structured notes, a curated paper database, and a synthesized final report. Output is orga
SKILL.md
npx skills add https://github.com/lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill deep-research

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Installs1.4k
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Last updatedFebruary 27, 2026
Repositorylingzhi227/agent-research-skills

How do I conduct systematic academic literature reviews in 6 phases, producing structured notes, a curated paper database, and a synthesized final report. output is organized by phase?

Conduct systematic academic literature reviews in 6 phases, producing structured notes, a curated paper database, and a synthesized final report. Output is organized by phase.

Who is it for?

Developers using deep research workflows documented in SKILL.md.

Skip if: Skip when the task falls outside deep-research scope or needs a different stack.

When should I use this skill?

User asks about deep research or related SKILL.md workflows.

What you get

Completed deep-research workflow with documented commands, files, and expected deliverables.

  • structured arXiv query results
  • paginated paper listings

By the numbers

  • arXiv API max_results parameter capped at 100 results per page

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Deep Research Skill

Trigger

Activate this skill when the user wants to:

  • "Research a topic", "literature review", "find papers about", "survey papers on"
  • "Deep dive into [topic]", "what's the state of the art in [topic]"
  • Uses /research <topic> slash command

Overview

This skill conducts systematic academic literature reviews in 6 phases, producing structured notes, a curated paper database, and a synthesized final report. Output is organized by phase for clarity.

Installation: ~/.claude/skills/deep-research/ — scripts, references, and this skill definition. Output: .//Users/lingzhi/Code/deep-research-output/{slug}/ relative to the current working directory.

CRITICAL: Strict Sequential Phase Execution

You MUST execute all 6 phases in strict order: 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6. NEVER skip any phase.

This is the single most important rule of this skill. Violations include:

  • ❌ Jumping from Phase 2 to Phase 5/6 (skipping Deep Dive and Code)
  • ❌ Writing synthesis or report before completing Phase 3 deep reading
  • ❌ Producing a final report based only on abstracts/titles from search results
  • ❌ Combining or merging phases (e.g., doing "Phase 3-5 together")

Phase Gate Protocol

Before starting Phase N+1, you MUST verify that Phase N's required output files exist on disk. If they don't exist, you have NOT completed that phase.

PhaseGate: Required Output Files
1 → 2phase1_frontier/frontier.md exists AND contains ≥10 papers
2 → 3phase2_survey/survey.md exists AND paper_db.jsonl has 35-80 papers
3 → 4phase3_deep_dive/selection.md AND phase3_deep_dive/deep_dive.md exist AND deep_dive.md contains detailed notes for ≥8 papers
4 → 5phase4_code/code_repos.md exists AND contains ≥3 repositories
5 → 6phase5_synthesis/synthesis.md AND phase5_synthesis/gaps.md exist

After completing each phase, print a phase completion checkpoint:

✅ Phase N complete. Output: [list files written]. Proceeding to Phase N+1.

Why Every Phase Matters

  • Phase 3 (Deep Dive) is where you actually READ papers — without it, your synthesis is superficial and based only on abstracts
  • Phase 4 (Code & Tools) grounds the research in practical implementations — without it, you miss the open-source ecosystem
  • Phase 5 (Synthesis) requires deep knowledge from Phase 3 — you cannot synthesize papers you haven't read
  • Phase 6 (Report) assembles content from ALL prior phases — it should cite specific findings from Phase 3 notes

Paper Quality Policy

Peer-reviewed conference papers take priority over arXiv preprints. Many arXiv papers have not undergone peer review and may contain unverified claims.

Source Priority (highest to lowest)

1. Top AI conferences: NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, AAAI, IJCAI, CVPR, KDD, CoRL 2. Peer-reviewed journals: JMLR, TACL, Nature, Science, etc. 3. Workshop papers: NeurIPS/ICML workshops (lower bar but still reviewed) 4. arXiv preprints with high citations: Likely high-quality but unverified 5. Recent arXiv preprints: Use cautiously, note "preprint" status explicitly

When to Use arXiv Papers

  • As supplementary evidence alongside peer-reviewed work
  • For very recent results (< 3 months old) not yet at conferences
  • When a peer-reviewed version doesn't exist yet — note (preprint) in citations
  • For survey/review papers (these are useful even without peer review)

Search Tools (by priority)

1. paper_finder (primary — conference papers only)

Location: /Users/lingzhi/Code/documents/tool/paper_finder/paper_finder.py

Searches ai-paper-finder.info (HuggingFace Space) for published conference papers. Supports filtering by conference + year. Outputs JSONL with BibTeX.

python /Users/lingzhi/Code/documents/tool/paper_finder/paper_finder.py --mode scrape --config <config.yaml>
python /Users/lingzhi/Code/documents/tool/paper_finder/paper_finder.py --mode download --jsonl <results.jsonl>
python /Users/lingzhi/Code/documents/tool/paper_finder/paper_finder.py --list-venues

Config example:

searches:
  - query: "long horizon reasoning agent"
    num_results: 100
    venues:
      neurips: [2024, 2025]
      iclr: [2024, 2025, 2026]
      icml: [2024, 2025]
output:
  root: /Users/lingzhi/Code/deep-research-output/{slug}/phase1_frontier/search_results
  overwrite: true

2. search_semantic_scholar.py (supplementary — citation data + broader coverage)

Location: /Users/lingzhi/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/search_semantic_scholar.py Supports --peer-reviewed-only and --top-conferences filters. API key: /Users/lingzhi/Code/keys.md (field S2_API_Key)

3. search_arxiv.py (supplementary — latest preprints)

Location: /Users/lingzhi/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/search_arxiv.py For searching recent papers not yet published at conferences. Mark citations with (preprint).

Other Scripts

ScriptLocationKey Flags
download_papers.py~/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/--jsonl, --output-dir, --max-downloads, --sort-by-citations
extract_pdf.py~/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/--pdf, --pdf-dir, --output-dir, --sections-only
paper_db.py~/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/subcommands: merge, search, filter, tag, stats, add, export
bibtex_manager.py~/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/--jsonl, --output, --keys-only
compile_report.py~/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/--topic-dir

WebFetch Mode (no Bash)

1. Paper discovery: WebSearch + WebFetch to query Semantic Scholar/arXiv APIs 2. Paper reading: WebFetch on ar5iv HTML or Read tool on downloaded PDFs 3. Writing: Write tool for JSONL, notes, report files

6-Phase Workflow

Phase 1: Frontier

Search the latest conference proceedings and preprints to understand current trends. 1. Write phase1_frontier/paper_finder_config.yaml targeting latest 1-2 years 2. Run paper_finder scrape 3. WebSearch for latest accepted paper lists 4. Identify trending directions, key breakthroughs → Output: phase1_frontier/frontier.md, phase1_frontier/search_results/

Phase 2: Survey

Build a comprehensive landscape with broader time range. Target 35-80 papers after filtering. 1. Write phase2_survey/paper_finder_config.yaml covering 2023-2025 2. Run paper_finder + Semantic Scholar + arXiv 3. Merge all results: python /Users/lingzhi/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/paper_db.py merge 4. Filter to 35-80 most relevant: python /Users/lingzhi/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/paper_db.py filter --min-score 0.80 --max-papers 70 5. Cluster by theme, write survey notes → Output: phase2_survey/survey.md, phase2_survey/search_results/, paper_db.jsonl

Phase 3: Deep Dive ⚠️ DO NOT SKIP

This phase is MANDATORY. You must actually READ 8-15 full papers, not just their abstracts.

1. Select 8-15 papers from paper_db.jsonl with rationale → write phase3_deep_dive/selection.md 2. Download PDFs: python download_papers.py --jsonl paper_db.jsonl --output-dir phase3_deep_dive/papers/ --sort-by-citations --max-downloads 15 3. For EACH selected paper, read the full text (PDF via Read or HTML via WebFetch on ar5iv) 4. Write detailed structured notes per paper (see note-format.md template): problem, contributions, methodology, experiments, limitations, connections 5. Write ALL notes → phase3_deep_dive/deep_dive.md

Phase 3 Gate: deep_dive.md must contain detailed notes for ≥8 papers, each with methodology and experiment sections filled in. Abstract-only summaries do NOT count.

→ Output: phase3_deep_dive/selection.md, phase3_deep_dive/deep_dive.md, phase3_deep_dive/papers/

Phase 4: Code & Tools ⚠️ DO NOT SKIP

This phase is MANDATORY. You must survey the open-source ecosystem.

1. Extract GitHub URLs from papers read in Phase 3 2. WebSearch for implementations: "site:github.com {method name}", "site:paperswithcode.com {topic}" 3. For each repo found: record URL, stars, language, last updated, documentation quality 4. Search for related benchmarks and datasets 5. Write → phase4_code/code_repos.md (must contain ≥3 repositories)

Phase 4 Gate: code_repos.md must exist and contain at least 3 repositories with metadata.

→ Output: phase4_code/code_repos.md

Phase 5: Synthesis (REQUIRES Phase 3 + 4 complete)

Cross-paper analysis. Weight peer-reviewed findings higher. This phase MUST build on the detailed notes from Phase 3 and the code landscape from Phase 4. Taxonomy, comparative tables, gap analysis.

Before starting: Verify phase3_deep_dive/deep_dive.md and phase4_code/code_repos.md exist. If not, go back and complete those phases first.

→ Output: phase5_synthesis/synthesis.md, phase5_synthesis/gaps.md

Phase 6: Compilation (REQUIRES Phase 1-5 complete)

Assemble final report from ALL prior phase outputs. Mark preprint citations with (preprint) suffix.

Before starting: Verify ALL phase outputs exist:

  • phase1_frontier/frontier.md
  • phase2_survey/survey.md
  • phase3_deep_dive/deep_dive.md
  • phase4_code/code_repos.md
  • phase5_synthesis/synthesis.md + gaps.md

If ANY are missing, go back and complete the missing phase(s) first.

→ Output: phase6_report/report.md, phase6_report/references.bib

Output Directory

output/{topic-slug}/
├── paper_db.jsonl                    # Master database (accumulated)
├── phase1_frontier/
│   ├── paper_finder_config.yaml
│   ├── search_results/
│   └── frontier.md
├── phase2_survey/
│   ├── paper_finder_config.yaml
│   ├── search_results/
│   └── survey.md
├── phase3_deep_dive/
│   ├── papers/
│   ├── selection.md
│   └── deep_dive.md
├── phase4_code/
│   └── code_repos.md
├── phase5_synthesis/
│   ├── synthesis.md
│   └── gaps.md
└── phase6_report/
    ├── report.md
    └── references.bib

Key Conventions

  • Paper IDs: Use arxiv_id when available, otherwise Semantic Scholar paperId
  • Citations: [@key] format, key = firstAuthorYearWord (e.g., [@vaswani2017attention])
  • JSONL schema: title, authors, abstract, year, venue, venue_normalized, peer_reviewed, citationCount, paperId, arxiv_id, pdf_url, tags, source
  • Preprint marking: Always note (preprint) when citing non-peer-reviewed work
  • Incremental saves: Each phase writes to disk immediately
  • Paper count: Target 35-80 papers in final paper_db.jsonl (use paper_db.py filter)

References

  • /Users/lingzhi/.claude/skills/deep-research/references/workflow-phases.md — Detailed 6-phase methodology
  • /Users/lingzhi/.claude/skills/deep-research/references/note-format.md — Note templates, BibTeX format, report structure
  • /Users/lingzhi/.claude/skills/deep-research/references/api-reference.md — arXiv, Semantic Scholar, ar5iv API guide

Related Skills

  • Downstream: literature-search, literature-review, citation-management
  • See also: novelty-assessment, survey-generation

Related skills

Forks & variants (2)

Deep Research has 2 known copies in the catalog totaling 18 installs. They canonicalize to this original listing.

How it compares

Use deep-research for raw arXiv API query construction when you need field-prefix boolean searches, not for formatted SLR report generation.

FAQ

What does deep-research do?

Conduct systematic academic literature reviews in 6 phases, producing structured notes, a curated paper database, and a synthesized final report. Output is organized by phase.

When should I use deep-research?

User asks about deep research or related SKILL.md workflows.

Is deep-research safe to install?

Review the Security Audits panel on this page before installing in production.

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