How to pick

  • If the answer is a single fact, use depth 1. Fast, cheap, cache-friendly.
  • If the answer is multi-faceted but bounded, use depth 2. The reflection loop catches gaps a single pass would miss.
  • If the deliverable is a report, use depth 3. The stopping AI decides when the question is answered; synthesis produces a coherent narrative across sources.

Depth and the cache

Every depth benefits from the fact cache. Depth 1 hits the cache on the initial query. Depth 2 and 3 also hit the cache on each decomposed sub-question inside the loop, so a tenant with a warm cache pays cache-hit costs on the parts of the question it has already answered before. See Fact Cache.