Previously the depth parameter (shallow/balanced/deep) was passed
only as a text hint inside the agent's user message, with no
mechanical effect on iterations, token budget, or source count.
The flag was effectively cosmetic — the LLM was expected to
"interpret" it.
Add DEPTH_PRESETS table and constraints_for_depth() helper in
researchers.web.models:
shallow: 2 iters, 5,000 tokens, 5 sources
balanced: 5 iters, 20,000 tokens, 10 sources (= historical defaults)
deep: 8 iters, 60,000 tokens, 20 sources
Wired through the stack:
- WebResearcher.research(): when constraints is None, builds from
the depth preset instead of bare ResearchConstraints()
- MCP server `research` tool: max_iterations and token_budget now
default to None; constraints are built via constraints_for_depth
with explicit values overriding the preset
- CLI `ask` command: --max-iterations and --budget default to None;
the CLI only forwards them to the MCP tool when set, so unset
flags fall through to the depth preset
balanced is unchanged from the historical defaults so existing
callers see no behavior difference. Explicit --max-iterations /
--budget always win over the preset.
Tests cover each preset's values, balanced backward-compat,
unknown depth fallback, full override, and partial override.
116/116 tests passing. Live-verified: --depth shallow on a simple
question now caps at 2 iterations and stays under budget.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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