Synthesis

The comprehensive research workflow. Combines academic literature review, web research, and book discovery into a single integrated report. Includes supervision and editing phases.

The workflow:

Runs a full academic literature review
Supervises to identify and fill gaps
Generates research targets for web and book exploration
Runs parallel web research and book finding
Synthesizes all sources into a structured report
Edits and polishes the final output

When to Use This

This workflow is intended for comprehensive research projects where you need depth (academic), breadth (web), and perspective (books) combined into one authoritative document.

For narrower needs, use Literature Review (academic only), Web Research (web only), or Book Discovery (books only).

How It Works

flowchart TD
    subgraph phase1["Phase 1: Academic Foundation"]
        A[Your Topic + Questions] --> B[Literature Review]
        B --> C[Academic Report]
    end

    subgraph phase2["Phase 2: Supervision"]
        C --> D[Identify Theoretical Gaps]
        D --> E[Fill Gaps with Literature]
        E --> F[Expand to Adjacent Areas]
    end

    subgraph phase3["Phase 3: Parallel Research"]
        F --> G[Generate Research Targets]
        G --> H1[Web Research Worker 1]
        G --> H2[Web Research Worker 2]
        G --> H3[...]
        G --> I1[Book Finding Worker 1]
        G --> I2[Book Finding Worker 2]
        H1 --> J[Aggregate Findings]
        H2 --> J
        H3 --> J
        I1 --> J
        I2 --> J
    end

    subgraph phase4["Phase 4: Synthesis"]
        J --> K[Design Report Structure]
        K --> L[Select Best Books]
        L --> M[Fetch Book Summaries]
        M --> N1[Write Section 1]
        M --> N2[Write Section 2]
        M --> N3[...]
        N1 --> O[Quality Check]
        N2 --> O
        N3 --> O
        O --> P[Assemble Report]
    end

    subgraph phase5["Phase 5: Editing"]
        P --> Q[Structure & Polish]
        Q --> R[Final Report]
    end

    R --> S[Comprehensive Synthesis]

    style phase1 fill:#e8f4f8
    style phase2 fill:#f0f8e8
    style phase3 fill:#fff8e8
    style phase4 fill:#f8e8f4
    style phase5 fill:#e8f0f8

The Five Phases

Phase 1: Academic Foundation Runs the full Literature Review workflow to establish a scholarly foundation. This becomes the backbone of the final report.

Phase 2: Supervision Analyzes the literature review for theoretical gaps and limited perspectives. Runs focused searches to fill gaps and expand into adjacent literature.

Phase 3: Parallel Research Based on the supervised report, generates specific research targets. Runs multiple web research and book finding workers in parallel to gather additional sources.

Phase 4: Synthesis Designs the final report structure. Selects the most relevant books from those found. Writes sections in parallel, each drawing from academic, web, and book sources. Quality checks each section before assembly.

Phase 5: Editing Runs the editing workflow to improve structure, strengthen arguments, and polish the writing.

Inputs

Input	Description	Example
Topic	Research topic	”The future of urban transportation”
Research questions	Specific questions to address	[“What role will autonomous vehicles play?”, “How will cities adapt infrastructure?“]
Synthesis brief (optional)	Context to guide the synthesis	”Focus on practical implementation challenges”
Thoroughness	Overall depth (see below)	“Standard”
Language (optional)	Primary language	”en”

Outputs

Output	Description
Report	Comprehensive synthesis with citations from all source types
Status	Success, partial, or failed
Source count	Total sources integrated

Thoroughness Settings

Setting	Target Words	Research Workers	Max Books	Supervision
Test	3,000	1 web, 1 book	2	Skipped
Quick	12,000	2 web, 2 book	3	Light
Standard	18,000	3 web, 3 book	4	Full
Comprehensive	26,250	4 web, 4 book	5	Full
High Quality	37,500	5 web, 5 book	6	Full

What Makes It Different

Literature Review gives you academic depth on a topic. Web Research gives you current, practical information. Book Discovery gives you broader perspectives and deeper treatments.

Synthesis combines all three, with intelligent orchestration:

Academic findings inform what web and book research to pursue
Supervision ensures no major gaps
The final report integrates all source types coherently
Editing ensures quality and readability

Example

Input:

Topic: “Organizational approaches to hybrid work”
Research questions: [“What models are emerging?”, “What are the key success factors?”, “What are common pitfalls?“]
Thoroughness: Standard

Typical output: An ~18,000 word report with:

Academic foundation from ~100 papers on remote work, organizational design
Web research on current corporate policies, recent case studies
Book perspectives on management philosophy, workplace culture
Sections organized by theme, drawing from all source types
Properly cited throughout, professionally edited

Developer Reference

Entry point: workflows/wrappers/synthesis/graph/api.py — exposes synthesis()

Graph construction: workflows/wrappers/synthesis/graph/construction.py

State: workflows/wrappers/synthesis/state.py — SynthesisState

Nodes: workflows/wrappers/synthesis/nodes/

Phase 1:

lit_review.py — runs academic literature review

Phase 2:

supervision.py — runs enhancement supervision

Phase 3:

research_targets.py — generates web/book research targets
research_workers.py — parallel web research execution

Phase 4:

book_summaries.py — fetches 10:1 summaries for selected books
synthesis.py — structure design, section writing, quality checks

Phase 5:

editing.py — runs editing workflow
finalize.py — output packaging

Quality presets: workflows/wrappers/synthesis/quality_presets.py — thoroughness tier definitions

Prompts: workflows/wrappers/synthesis/prompts.py — synthesis-specific prompts

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