Build a Claude Code subagent that writes SEO and answer-engine research briefs with Perplexity and Firecrawl
A step-by-step build of a Claude Code subagent that, given a post or topic, gathers search trends and search results and writes a research brief with keywords, snippet opportunities, competitor gaps and a suggested title and slug.
Evidence: The source shows its work: steps, screenshots, code or data you can inspect.
The business problem
Content publishers need keyword and answer-engine research for each post, but manual research is slow and paid tools are costly.
What was tried
The agent file defines allowed tools (file tools plus Perplexity and Firecrawl MCP tools) and a system prompt. A command such as a research slash command loads two context profiles, runs one batched Perplexity search, a Firecrawl results analysis and one reasoning call for answer-engine synthesis, then writes structured JSON and a markdown brief to a per-post folder. Batching calls cut cost from about $0.85 to about $0.19 per run, and the author reports a build time of about 55 minutes.
What was reported (not reported)
A test run on a sample topic took about 45 seconds and about $0.25, and the example brief rated one keyword medium volume with high ranking opportunity. The article reports no ranking or traffic results.
Limitations
Perplexity gives directional high, medium or low volumes, not exact figures, and the outputs were not validated against paid tools. The article gives inconsistent run times and costs, and the pricing claims are unsourced. The agent file is shown but pre-built configs sit in a paid toolkit, and the article promotes the author's course and membership.
What you need
Claude Code, Perplexity and Firecrawl API keys, MCP servers for both, and an initial project setup of about 30 minutes. Firecrawl's free tier is 500 scrapes a month.
Sources
- GenAI Unplugged (Substack) ↗ Firsthand write-up, published February 8, 2026
Source published: February 8, 2026. Last reviewed here: October 11, 2026. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Tools in this workflow
- Firecrawl: Search results scrapingTry Firecrawl
- Claude Code: Runs the subagentTry Claude Code
- Perplexity: Search trend dataTry Perplexity
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