English

Self-Optimizing Multi-Agent Systems for Deep Research

Information Retrieval 2026-04-06 v1 Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Given a user's complex information need, a multi-agent Deep Research system iteratively plans, retrieves, and synthesizes evidence across hundreds of documents to produce a high-quality answer. In one possible architecture, an orchestrator agent coordinates the process, while parallel worker agents execute tasks. Current Deep Research systems, however, often rely on hand-engineered prompts and static architectures, making improvement brittle, expensive, and time-consuming. We therefore explore various multi-agent optimization methods to show that enabling agents to self-play and explore different prompt combinations can produce high-quality Deep Research systems that match or outperform expert-crafted prompts.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.02988,
  title  = {Self-Optimizing Multi-Agent Systems for Deep Research},
  author = {Arthur Câmara and Vincent Slot and Jakub Zavrel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.02988},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Accepted at the Workshop on Conversational Search for Complex Information Needs at ECIR 2026