State of Local Deep Research Tools: GPT Researcher and Local Deep Research Lead, STORM and LangChain Projects Stagnant
As of May 2026, a Reddit community survey on r/LocalLLaMA evaluated major open-source local deep research tools. The two healthiest projects are GPT Researcher by assafelovic and Local Deep Research by LearningCircuit. Others like STORM by Stanford and LangChain's Open Deep Research appear abandoned or poorly maintained.
GPT Researcher (assafelovic)
- Status: Semi-alive; last commit 3 weeks ago. Poorly maintained with many stale branches.
- Contributors: 211
- Issues: 173 open (almost no response to 2026 issues), 511 closed (mostly fixes).
- PRs: 44 open (some 6 months old without review), 785 closed (60-70% merged).
- Tech: Python + TypeScript. Uses MCP for internet search & web scraping via a separate gptr-mcp repository that relies on a 3rd-party API.
- Links: GitHub, Docs, Website
Local Deep Research (LearningCircuit)
- Status: Alive; last commit yesterday. Medium contributors (46).
- Issues: 75 open (half by contributor, half from users with no comments for months), 254 closed (many self-reported).
- PRs: 161 open (many by contributor hanging for weeks), 3309 closed (95% by contributor or dependabot).
- Tech: Python. Uses SearXNG.
- Links: GitHub, Benchmarks, Subreddit
STORM (Stanford)
- Status: Abandoned; last commit 8 months ago. Small contributors (23).
- Issues: 58 open (many bug reports with no replies), 164 closed (mostly without resolution as "not planned").
- PRs: 60 open (mostly no replies), 111 closed (just cancelled for last 2 years).
- Tech: Python. Supports multiple retrieval services: YouRM, BingSearch, VectorRM, SerperRM, BraveRM, SearXNG, DuckDuckGoSearchRM, TavilySearchRM, GoogleSearch, AzureAISearch.
- Links: GitHub, Website
Local Deep Research (LangChain)
- Status: Semi-alive; last commit 2 weeks ago. Small contributors (14).
- Issues: 36 open (many with no reply), 39 closed (with solutions).
- PRs: 6 open (some hanging more than a year), 48 closed (mostly dependabot, no recent user contributions).
- Tech: Python. DuckDuckGo, SearXNG + commercial providers.
- Links: GitHub
Open Deep Research (LangChain)
- Status: Abandoned; last human dev work in Aug 2025. Small contributors (26).
- Issues: 34 open (no replies since Nov 2025), 95 closed.
- PRs: 24 open (no comments/reviews), 114 closed (community contributions mostly discarded).
- Tech: Python + Jupyter notebook. No info on search engine.
- Links: GitHub
Open Deep Research (Together)
- Status: Abandoned; last commit a year ago, only 3 commits total. 1 contributor, no issues or PRs.
- Tech: Python, relies on TAVILY for web search.
- Links: GitHub, Blogpost
The community notes confusion over LangChain maintaining two similarly named projects ("Local Deep Research" and "Open Deep Research") with no documentation on relationship. For developers seeking actively maintained local research tools, GPT Researcher and LearningCircuit's Local Deep Research are currently the most viable options.
📖 Read the full source: r/LocalLLaMA
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