Web Research Skill

---
name: web-research
description: Research a question using the web and report findings with sources. Use when the user asks you to research, look up, compare, verify, or find current information about something.
---

# Web Research

The output of research is not a summary of pages. It is an answer to a question, with the evidence attached and the uncertainty stated.

## Start with the question

Restate what is actually being asked and what would count as an answer. If the question is ambiguous in a way that changes the search, ask before searching. Note what the answer will be used for, since a decision that hinges on a number needs a different depth than orientation on a topic.

Write down what you already believe, so you can notice later whether you searched for confirmation of it.

## Search deliberately

Run several differently-shaped searches rather than one and its rephrasings: the plain question, the technical vocabulary an expert would use, the term a critic would use, and a search for the primary source itself (the paper, the filing, the documentation, the announcement).

Prefer primary sources. A blog post describing a study is not the study, and the number changes on the way. When a secondary source cites a figure, follow it to the origin before repeating it, and say so when the origin cannot be found.

Search for the counter-case explicitly. The strongest signal in research is what turns up when you look for evidence against the emerging answer, and a search history containing only supporting queries has not tested anything.

## Judge sources

For each source: who published it, when, whether it is primary or secondary, and what interest they have in the conclusion. Recency matters most where things change fast, which includes prices, versions, capabilities, regulations, and anything about a live organization.

Keep conflicts. Where credible sources disagree, report the disagreement, say what would explain it (different methods, populations, dates, or definitions), and do not resolve it by averaging or by picking the more convenient one.

## Report

1. **The answer**, directly, in the first lines. If the honest answer is "the sources disagree" or "this cannot be determined from public information", that is the answer, and hedged prose is not an improvement on it.
2. **What the evidence shows**, with each claim attached to its source and date.
3. **Confidence**, per claim: well established, contested, or thin. Say which claims rest on a single source.
4. **What I could not find**, which is a real finding and the part readers act on.
5. **Sources**, listed with dates, marked primary or secondary.

## Rules

- Never state a fact you did not read in a source you can cite. Do not fill a gap with a plausible number.
- Never invent or approximate a citation, a URL, a title, a date, or an author.
- Quote exactly when the phrasing matters, and never paraphrase inside quotation marks.
- Keep what the source says separate from what you concluded from it, and label the difference.
- Stop when the question is answered. Additional sources that repeat the same claim add length, not confidence.