Octen Docs | The Search infrastructure for AI

For AI agents: docs.octen.ai/capabilities/deep-research.md

Some questions aren’t answered by a page of results. They need dozens of sources, several rounds of digging, and a structured write-up. Octen Deep Research is an autonomous research agent: it plans the research, searches and reads over multiple rounds, and streams back a cited report. For the full list of parameters, see the Deep Research API reference.

Why Deep Research

Autonomous planning. Complex topics break down into a structured research plan. When the question is ambiguous, the plan pauses for your confirmation.
Multi-round exploration. Successive rounds of searching and reading build comprehensive coverage, adjusting as evidence comes in.
Cited reports. Long-form answers with inline citations linking back to the original sources.
Depth tiers. Choose lite, standard, or pro to trade depth against cost and time.

For a quick grounded answer instead of a report, use Answer.

How It Works

Send a research question. Octen drafts a research plan; if the plan is ambiguous, the stream pauses and waits for your confirmation.
Octen runs successive rounds of searching and reading, following the plan.
The final report streams back as server-sent events, with citations linking to the sources.

Scenarios

Run a research task

Send the research question and pick a tier; the report streams back over SSE.

curl -N -X POST https://api.octen.ai/v1/research \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "tier": "standard",
    "messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "state of solid-state battery technology in 2026" }]
  }'

Confirm an ambiguous plan

When the plan event returns requires_selection: true, call the endpoint again with the plan ID and your selections; the research then proceeds.

{
  "tier": "standard",
  "plan_id": "PLAN_ID_FROM_PHASE_1",
  "selections": [{ "term": "Apollo", "chosen": "nasa_program" }]
}

Skip straight to research

Skip the planning pause when no confirmation loop is wanted, such as in unattended pipelines.

{
  "tier": "lite",
  "messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "overview of the humanoid robotics market" }],
  "skip_plan_confirm": true
}

Add background and constraints

Pass extra context to steer the research direction without changing the question.

{
  "tier": "pro",
  "messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "evaluate vector database options" }],
  "extra_context": "We run on AWS, need hybrid search, and expect 100M vectors."
}

Deep Research

Why Deep Research

How It Works

Scenarios

Run a research task

Confirm an ambiguous plan

Skip straight to research

Add background and constraints

Next Steps

Try in Console

Deep Research API Reference

​Why Deep Research

​How It Works

​Scenarios

​Run a research task

​Confirm an ambiguous plan

​Skip straight to research

​Add background and constraints

​Next Steps

Try in Console

Deep Research API Reference

Why Deep Research

How It Works

Scenarios

Run a research task

Confirm an ambiguous plan

Skip straight to research

Add background and constraints

Next Steps