Paper: first retrieval step drives deep research agent performance

elvis @omarsar0Originally posted 2026.09.22

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Impressive paper showing how much the first retrieval step matters for deep research agents. It helps to improve GPT-5.5 from 83.1% to 90.5% on BrowseComp-Plus with the same retriever and the same agent loop. It seems that the gain comes from the opening context. The authors https://t.co/niznBw9mJB