Source Quality for AI Research Agents: More Search Is Not Better Research

Build reliable research with source tiers, freshness, conflict detection, citation coverage, and uncertainty.

Key takeawayA research agent should optimize evidence quality and traceability, not page count.

Why this deserves its own decision

Search results may repeat one original report or present stale material as current fact. An agent that summarizes the most common claim can manufacture false consensus.

Decision framework

Prefer primary sources for technical, pricing, policy, and product facts.
Record event date, publication date, and access date.
Expose evidence conflicts and unresolved uncertainty for important claims.

Putting it into a ModelRush workflow

A planning route decomposes questions and source tiers, retrieval preserves URLs and excerpts, and the ModelRush synthesis route can use only collected evidence. A review route checks direct support for every key claim and labels inference.