skills/docs/worklogs/2025-11-22-create-web-research-skill.org

Create Web Research Skill and Automate Deployment

• Session Summary
  • Date: 2025-11-22
  • Focus Area: Creating advanced web research capabilities and automating skill deployment.
• Accomplishments
• Key Decisions
  • Decision 1: Hybrid Backend for LLM
  • Decision 2: Sops-Nix for Kagi Key
• Problems & Solutions
• Technical Details
  • Code Changes
  • Commands Used
• Process and Workflow
  • What Worked Well
  • What Was Challenging
• Context for Future Work
  • Next Steps
• Session Metrics

Session Summary

Date: 2025-11-22

Focus Area: Creating advanced web research capabilities and automating skill deployment.

Accomplishments

• Created `web-search` skill for quick information retrieval.
• Automated skill deployment in `bin/deploy-skill.sh` (injects config into Nix files).
• Added Antigravity/Global support to deployment script.
• Created `web-research` skill for deep, synthesized research reports.
• Implemented Multi-Backend support for `web-research` (`claude`, `llm`, `kagi`).
• Integrated `sops-nix` for secure Kagi API key management.
• Verified all backends and deployment automation.

Key Decisions

Decision 1: Hybrid Backend for LLM

• Context: `llm` CLI tool does not have built-in web search plugins installed.

• Options considered:

  1. Install new plugins (risk of environment issues).
  2. Use `curl` + `llm` (limited scraping capability).
  3. Hybrid: Use `claude` to fetch context, `llm` to synthesize.
• Rationale: Leverages Claude's robust tool access for retrieval while allowing `llm` to use any model for synthesis.
• Impact: Flexible backend that works with existing tools.

Decision 2: Sops-Nix for Kagi Key

• Context: Kagi API key is sensitive and shouldn't be in plain text env vars permanently.

• Options considered:

  1. Manual `export KAGI_API_KEY`.
  2. Hardcoded in script (insecure).
  3. `sops-nix` secret file.
• Rationale: Aligns with existing infrastructure (`dotfiles` uses sops).
• Impact: Secure, persistent configuration via Nix.

Problems & Solutions

Problem	Solution	Learning
`web_search` param deprecated in Kagi FastGPT	Removed parameter, relied on default behavior	APIs change; always check current docs.
`llm` backend verification hung	Increased timeout/patience (it was just slow)	Deep research takes time; progress indicators help.
`sudo` restriction for rebuild	Asked user to run rebuild manually	Agent limitations require human-in-the-loop for root ops.

Technical Details

Code Changes

• Total files modified: ~10

• Key files changed:

  • `bin/deploy-skill.sh`: Added `inject_nix_config` function.
  • `skills/web-research/scripts/research.sh`: Main logic with backend switching.
  • `skills/web-research/SKILL.md`: Documentation.
  • `AGENTS.md`: Updated with new workflow.

Commands Used

```bash

./bin/deploy-skill.sh web-research

RESEARCH_BACKEND=kagi ./skills/web-research/scripts/research.sh "topic" ```

Process and Workflow

What Worked Well

• Iterative Development: Started with `web-search`, then `web-research`, then backends.
• Verification: Testing each backend (Claude, LLM, Kagi) ensured robustness.

What Was Challenging

• Environment Restrictions: Unable to run `sudo` or install global packages (`googler`), forcing creative solutions (Hybrid backend).

Context for Future Work

Next Steps

• Explore `playwright-skill` as a standalone skill for browser automation.
• Add more backends if needed (e.g., Perplexity).

Session Metrics

• Commits made: 0 (pending)
• Files touched: 69 (scanned)
• Lines added: +13012 (mostly new skill files + logs)