Gemini researches Stonehenge into a local report

Allen Hutchison wanted research results to appear directly in his file-based writing workflow. After losing an earlier browser report, he built a Gemini CLI extension exposing Gemini Deep Research through MCP. His first concrete trial asked about the scientific evidence for Stonehenge construction after reading Ken Follett’s novel Circle of Days.

The research job planned its investigation, queried sources and synthesised a report. The CLI checked whether the long-running job had completed rather than requiring Hutchison to manage it in another browser tab. He reports that a Markdown file appeared in the local filesystem about twenty minutes later, containing citations to academic material, isotope analysis and archaeological evidence. A reference to the Bell Beaker transition prompted a second investigation using the same workflow.

The practical detail is to preserve a long research task as a tracked job with local state, then save the artifact where the writer already works. The extension also supports indexed local source collections, although the Stonehenge trial was the reported example. Hutchison describes daily use but does not independently assess the report’s historical accuracy. Readers can copy the output-management pattern while still checking important citations and distinguishing the agent’s synthesis from established archaeological conclusions.

Prompt
Suggested prompt (written by Agents In Use, not the author's)

Source: Blog · Allen Hutchison