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You.com's frontier research level only runs as a background task
Adding background: true to a You.com research request returns a task_id the client polls at GET /v1/research/{task_id}. The Quickstart lists frontier as an effort level that will only run that way.
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What happened
- You.com's Research API now accepts background: true on a research request and returns a task_id immediately, so the client stops holding a connection open while deep research runs.
- The client retrieves the job's status and, once available, its results with GET /v1/research/{task_id}.
- A second endpoint, GET /v1/research/{task_id}/stream, emits Server-Sent Events for progress while the task is still running.
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Why it matters
- capability A scheduled process can own a research job across executions: one run starts it and records the identifier, a later run collects the output and routes it.
- constraint The calling system carries the state. It has to hold the identifier somewhere durable and decide where finished research lands.
- decision Poll frequency and the threshold at which a pending task gets flagged for review become application code decisions, because the supplied material specifies neither.
- cost A team with no scheduler or queue has to build one before it can use frontier at all, since that level will not hand back research inside the submitting request.
You.com's Quickstart documentation identifies frontier, its long-running deep research effort level, as requiring background mode, according to the dev.to account of the Research API changelog [5]. Deep and exhaustive accept the same flag [6]. Two of the three supported levels can be written either way. Frontier only runs as a background task [12].
The submitted pattern has three stages. Send the request with background mode enabled and save the returned task_id. Monitor the job by polling its status endpoint or consuming progress events. Read the result only once the task reaches a completed state [8]. The write-up also puts storage, review and routing of the finished output on the calling system [8].
You.com's n8n node includes a Get Research Task action for checking the status of a background research task [9]. That covers the middle stage for low-code users without custom polling code.
The dev.to write-up says the supplied You.com documentation covers frontier pricing, but the verified material it worked from carries no price and no billing unit; it tells teams to check You.com's current documentation before estimating usage costs [10].
The relief from that ceiling transfers only if the caller can come back. A cron-driven poll and a row in a table are enough. A single request handler that exits when it responds has nowhere durable to keep the handle, and the job it started will finish with nobody to claim it. You.com recommends background mode specifically for research that may exceed normal timeout limits [7]. The two optional levels still work inline, and running all three through one operating model is a convenience for the integrator [6].
The design breaks the coupling between one HTTP request and one research job [1]. In its place you run a small state machine yourself: an identifier, a schedule, and a rule for when a job counts as finished. The API supplies the first and the endpoints to query it [3][4]. You build the rest, and the supplied material does not say how often to poll or how long a task may sit pending before someone looks at it [11].
What to watch
- Whether You.com adds a completion webhook or callback so workflows do not have to poll at all.
- Whether the docs publish a task retention window and the full set of terminal states beyond completed.
- Whether deep or exhaustive later become background-only, which would remove the inline path entirely.