Web Research Workflow

Unified approach for web content research that automatically selects the right tool for each situation.

Quick Decision Tree

URL to research
     │
     ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│ 1. Try WebFetch │ ← Fast, free, no overhead
│    (always try) │
└─────────────────┘
     │
Content OK? ──Yes──► Parse and return
     │
     No (empty/partial/<500 chars)
     │
     ▼
┌───────────────────────┐
│ 2. TAVILY_API_KEY set?│
└───────────────────────┘
     │          │
    Yes         No ──► Skip to step 3
     │
     ▼
┌───────────────────────────┐
│ Tavily search/extract/    │ ← Raw markdown, batch URLs
│ crawl/research            │
└───────────────────────────┘
     │
Content OK? ──Yes──► Parse and return
     │
     No (JS-rendered/auth-required)
     │
     ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│ 3. Use agent-browser │ ← Full browser, last resort
└─────────────────────┘
     │
├─ SPA (react/vue/angular) ──► wait --load networkidle
├─ Login required ──► auth flow + state save
├─ Dynamic content ──► wait --text "Expected"
└─ Multi-page ──► crawl pattern

Tavily Enhanced Research

When TAVILY_API_KEY is set, Tavily provides a powerful middle tier between WebFetch and agent-browser. It returns raw markdown content, supports batch URL extraction, and offers semantic search with relevance scoring. If TAVILY_API_KEY is not set, the 3-tier tree collapses to 2-tier (WebFetch → agent-browser) automatically.

Load details: Read("rules/tool-selection.md") for when-to-use-what tables, escalation heuristics, SPA detection patterns, and cost awareness.

Load details: Read("references/tavily-api.md") for Search, Extract, Map, Crawl, and Research endpoint examples and options.

Browser Patterns

For content requiring JavaScript rendering, authentication, or multi-page crawling, fall back to agent-browser.

Load details: Read("rules/browser-patterns.md") for auto-fallback, authentication flow, multi-page research patterns, best practices, and troubleshooting.

Competitive Monitoring

Track competitor websites for changes in pricing, features, positioning, and content.

Load details: Read("rules/monitoring-competitor.md") for snapshot capture, structured data extraction, and change classification.

Load details: Read("rules/monitoring-change-detection.md") for diff detection, structured comparison, Tavily site discovery, and CI automation.

Change Classification

Integration with Agents

This skill is used by:

• web-research-analyst - Primary user
• market-intelligence - Competitor research
• product-strategist - Deep competitive analysis

Related Skills

• browser-content-capture - Detailed browser patterns
• agent-browser - CLI reference

Version: 1.3.0 (March 2026)