/firecrawl-deep-research

name: firecrawl-deep-research
description: "Investigate questions needing multi-source synthesis: deep dives, comparisons, or find-all lists. Prefer focused workflows for enrichment, prospecting, or docs; not quick lookups or shopping."
license: ISC

Firecrawl Deep Research

Adapt the investigation to the question and the evidence available. This plugin uses Firecrawl's search MCP connection, not the full suite. Resolve deferred tools through the host's tool discovery when needed and follow the live schemas; use only operations exposed by this connection. Never invent tools or translate CLI flags into tool arguments.

Frame the investigation

Prefer a focused workflow when it can complete the request, such as `enrich-lead` for supplied people or lead CSVs, `find-leads` for new prospects, `business-contact-research` for published organizational contacts, or `read-docs` for official documentation. Use deep research for broader cross-source synthesis; multiple records or tool calls alone do not require it. Keep reusable evidence when switching workflows.

Invocation does not require an exhaustive investigation. Start with the smallest useful retrieval and expand only for gaps that could change the answer. Do not start paid enrichment merely because this skill is active. Use it when the requested scope and missing evidence justify it; keep simple answers simple.

Infer scope, dates, geography, audience and output; ask only for decisions that materially change the investigation. Convert relative dates to explicit bounds. For substantial investigations, briefly state the main questions, evidence routes, then begin. Revise the questions as findings reveal consequential gaps or competing explanations.

Use `firecrawl_search` with the actual question and its constraints to find sources, or the dedicated method below when the evidence calls for it, such as papers, code or US law. Read supplied URLs with `firecrawl_scrape`. Inspect relevant page results and matching capability suggestions returned by search.

When `firecrawl_search` exposes `objective`, set it to `[deep-research]` followed by the broader research goal, keeping that goal consistent across related searches. Keep `query` focused on the specific evidence needed, without the marker. Omit `objective` if the live schema does not support it, and avoid sensitive information in the goal.

Respect user-specified time, credit, page and result limits and returned account or tool restrictions. Do not impose default budgets, source quotas or minimum call counts; stop collecting when the requested answer is supported.

When the user sets a credit cap, track returned usage across calls. Count aggregate receipts and their included charges only once. Missing usage is unknown, not zero. Stop paid collection if the remaining budget cannot be established or respected.

Choose the evidence route

Use the method that best fills the most important gap, read the result, then decide the next step.

| Needed evidence | Method | |---|---| | Web sources | `firecrawl_search` | | Page content or Alexandria records | `firecrawl_scrape` | | Alexandria provider contracts | `firecrawl_find_tools` | | Code, repositories and API behavior | `firecrawl_developer_search`, when exposed | | Scientific papers | `firecrawl_research_search_papers`, `firecrawl_research_inspect_paper`, `firecrawl_research_read_paper` | | US laws and regulations | `firecrawl_gov_search` | | Site URLs or multi-page content | Site-restricted `firecrawl_search`, then `firecrawl_scrape` on relevant URLs and discovered links |

Prefer primary sources for factual claims; distinguish sources' own claims from independent verification. Reuse returned full text and directly supporting passages. Search excerpts guide discovery; inspect evidence before relying on consequential claims. Change an unproductive query or source rather than repeating it. Collect background only when it could change the answer.

For PDF reads, including extensionless document URLs, use supported `parsers: ["pdf"]` and choose `pdfOptions.maxPages` for the needed evidence and any user limit. Treat truncated documents as partial coverage.

**Alexandria records.** Prefer fitting records for comparable fields across many entities when coverage, access and cost fit; check entity type, geography and date coverage, not just topic. A catalogue suggestion is not retrieved data. Read the selected contract with `firecrawl_find_tools`, preserving selectors from its returned `nextTool.arguments`; a combined catalogue ID is not necessarily an execution selector. Execute through `firecrawl_scrape` Alexandria mode with the returned provider and capability IDs and only declared inputs. Inspect every returned item for errors, empty results and partial output. Discover missing entity IDs instead of guessing them. If terms or access block a provider, say so and continue with permitted routes.

Follow provider pagination only through declared inputs, preserving filters and user limits until the requested coverage is reached. Catalogue pagination lists contracts, not records. If paging stops early or no continuation is supported, report the remaining coverage gap.

For uncertain Alexandria retries, reuse the same `requestId` and payload when supported; changed inputs require a new ID. Do not duplicate in-flight requests, replay successful batch items to recover failures, or silently rerun paid work after retained results expire.

**Papers.** Discover studies, inspect canonical metadata and read relevant methods, results, tables or figures before relying on empirical claims. A research-category web filter is not the paper index. Distinguish paper text from generated summaries and disclose abstract-only support. Preserve the version read and publication status; check available withdrawal notices and linked journal versions when relevant. Versions of the same study are not independent corroboration. Use `firecrawl_research_related_papers` to