Gemini Integration: The Synthesis Engine

When to use Claude vs Gemini, synthesis patterns, citation generation, and content summarization

When to Use Claude Code vs. Gemini

Both models are powerful, but they excel at different tasks in the research workflow:

Best for:

  • Orchestration and multi-step workflows
  • File system operations and code generation
  • MCP server coordination
  • Complex task decomposition
  • Long-context project management

Strengths:

Claude Code excels at managing complex workflows with multiple dependencies. Use it to coordinate research tasks, manage file operations, and orchestrate MCP tools.

Best for:

  • Real-time web grounding and current information
  • Large document analysis (1M+ token context)
  • Rapid synthesis across many papers
  • Brainstorming and idea generation
  • Cost-efficient bulk processing

Strengths:

Gemini's massive context window and web grounding capabilities make it ideal for synthesizing large amounts of information and accessing current research trends.

Claude Orchestrates, Gemini Synthesizes

The most powerful research workflow combines both models:

// Claude Code orchestrates the workflow
async function comprehensiveLiteratureReview(topic: string) {
  // Claude: Coordinate search across databases
  const papers = await searchMultipleDatabases(topic);

  // Claude: Download and organize PDFs
  const pdfs = await batchDownload(papers);

  // Claude: Extract text from all PDFs
  const extractedContent = await extractAllPDFs(pdfs);

  // Gemini: Synthesize findings (better at large-scale analysis)
  const synthesis = await mcp.invoke('ask-gemini', {
    prompt: `Analyze these ${extractedContent.length} papers and provide:
             1. Major themes (group papers by approach)
             2. Consensus findings (what do most papers agree on?)
             3. Contradictions and debates
             4. Research gaps
             5. Methodological trends

             Full paper content: ${JSON.stringify(extractedContent)}`,
    model: 'gemini-2.5-pro'
  });

  // Claude: Format final report with citations
  const report = await generateReviewDocument(synthesis, papers);

  return report;
}

This division of labor mirrors human research teams where project managers coordinate while analysts synthesize findings.

Integration Insight: The magic happens when Claude orchestrates complex workflows while delegating synthesis and analysis to Gemini. This pattern maximizes each model's strengths while minimizing their weaknesses.

Real-Time Research Query Workflows

Gemini's web grounding capability makes it ideal for understanding the current state of any field.

Current State of the Field

async function currentStateOfField(topic: string) {
  // Gemini excels at real-time knowledge grounding
  const currentState = await mcp.invoke('ask-gemini', {
    prompt: `What is the current state of research on ${topic} as of 2025?
             Include:
             - Recent breakthroughs (2024-2025)
             - Active research groups and institutions
             - Upcoming conferences and deadlines
             - Trending methodologies
             - Open problems and challenges`,
    model: 'gemini-2.5-pro' // Uses web grounding
  });

  // Cross-reference with local paper database
  const localPapers = await searchLocalLibrary(topic);

  // Generate report combining real-time and local knowledge
  return mergeKnowledgeSources(currentState, localPapers);
}

When to use this pattern:

  • Starting a new research project
  • Updating literature reviews
  • Identifying trending methodologies
  • Finding recent breakthroughs

Source Synthesis Patterns

Pattern 1: Multi-Paper Comparison

Compare different approaches across multiple papers along specific dimensions:

async function compareApproaches(papers: Paper[], dimension: string) {
  const comparison = await mcp.invoke('ask-gemini', {
    prompt: `Compare these papers along the dimension: ${dimension}

             For each paper, extract:
             - Approach name
             - Key innovation
             - Performance metrics
             - Limitations

             Then create a comparison table and summary.

             Papers:
             ${papers.map(p => `
               Title: ${p.title}
               Authors: ${p.authors}
               Abstract: ${p.abstract}
               Key Findings: ${p.keyFindings}
             `).join('\n---\n')}`,
    model: 'gemini-2.5-pro'
  });

  return comparison;
}

// Example usage
const transformerPapers = await searchLocalLibrary('transformer architectures');
const comparisonReport = await compareApproaches(
  transformerPapers,
  'attention mechanism efficiency'
);

Use cases:

  • Methodology comparison
  • Performance benchmarking
  • Approach evaluation
  • Literature review synthesis

Pattern 2: Chronological Evolution Analysis

Track how a field has evolved over time:

async function trackFieldEvolution(topic: string, yearRange: [number, number]) {
  const papersByYear = await getPapersByYear(topic, yearRange);

  const evolution = await mcp.invoke('ask-gemini', {
    prompt: `Trace the evolution of research on "${topic}" from ${yearRange[0]} to ${yearRange[1]}.

             For each year, identify:
             - Dominant approaches/paradigms
             - Key papers that shifted the field
             - Emerging trends
             - Discontinued approaches

             Papers grouped by year:
             ${JSON.stringify(papersByYear, null, 2)}

             Provide a narrative timeline and inflection point analysis.`,
    model: 'gemini-2.5-pro'
  });

  return evolution;
}

Insights this reveals:

  • Paradigm shifts
  • Influential papers
  • Abandoned approaches
  • Emerging trends

Citation Generation with Context

Generate intelligent citations with contextual awareness:

async function generateContextualCitation(claim: string, context: string) {
  // Find relevant papers
  const relevantPapers = await searchLocalLibrary(claim);

  // Ask Gemini to select best citation and generate context
  const citationAdvice = await mcp.invoke('ask-gemini', {
    prompt: `For this claim: "${claim}"
             In this context: "${context}"

             Available papers: ${JSON.stringify(relevantPapers)}

             Which paper(s) best support this claim?
             Generate:
             1. The formatted in-text citation
             2. A brief parenthetical elaboration if needed
             3. Alternative citations if the claim is contested

             Citation style: APA 7th edition`,
    model: 'gemini-2.5-pro'
  });

  return citationAdvice;
}

Example output:

{
  "primary_citation": "(Vaswani et al., 2017)",
  "elaboration": "though recent work suggests mixture-of-experts may exceed transformers on specific tasks (Fedus et al., 2022)",
  "alternative_citations": ["(Devlin et al., 2019)", "(Brown et al., 2020)"],
  "confidence": "high"
}

Smart Citations: Gemini can analyze the nuance of your claim and suggest not just citations, but contextual elaborations that acknowledge counter-evidence or alternative perspectives.

Content Summarization Patterns

Pattern 1: Progressive Summarization

Build summaries hierarchically from individual papers to executive overview:

async function progressiveSummarization(papers: Paper[]) {
  const summaries = [];

  // Level 1: Individual paper summaries (parallel)
  for (const paper of papers) {
    const summary = await mcp.invoke('ask-gemini', {
      prompt: `Summarize this paper in 3 sentences:
               Title: ${paper.title}
               Abstract: ${paper.abstract}
               Full text: ${paper.fullText}`,
      model: 'gemini-2.0-flash-exp' // Fast model for bulk work
    });
    summaries.push({ paper: paper.title, summary });
  }

  // Level 2: Theme-based clustering (single call)
  const themes = await mcp.invoke('ask-gemini', {
    prompt: `Given these paper summaries, identify 3-5 major themes:
             ${JSON.stringify(summaries)}`,
    model: 'gemini-2.5-pro'
  });

  // Level 3: Executive summary (single call)
  const executive = await mcp.invoke('ask-gemini', {
    prompt: `Create a 1-paragraph executive summary of research on this topic,
             based on these themes: ${JSON.stringify(themes)}`,
    model: 'gemini-2.5-pro'
  });

  return {
    individual_summaries: summaries,
    themes: themes,
    executive_summary: executive
  };
}

Hierarchy benefits:

  • Individual summaries for detailed reference
  • Theme clusters for pattern recognition
  • Executive summary for quick overview
  • Progressive detail for different audiences

Pattern 2: Figure and Table Summarization

Extract insights from visual content:

async function summarizeVisualContent(paper: Paper) {
  const figures = await extractFigures(paper.pdfPath);
  const tables = await extractTables(paper.pdfPath);

  const visualSummary = await mcp.invoke('ask-gemini', {
    prompt: `Summarize the key information from these figures and tables:

             Figures:
             ${figures.map(f => `Figure ${f.number}: ${f.caption}`).join('\n')}

             Tables:
             ${tables.map(t => `Table ${t.number}: ${t.caption}\nData: ${JSON.stringify(t.data)}`).join('\n')}

             What are the main findings visualized? Any surprising results?`,
    model: 'gemini-2.5-pro'
  });

  return visualSummary;
}

Visual analysis capabilities:

  • Figure interpretation
  • Table data extraction
  • Trend identification
  • Anomaly detection

Cost Efficiency: Use gemini-2.0-flash-exp for bulk summarization tasks (Level 1) and gemini-2.5-pro for complex synthesis (Levels 2-3). This balance optimizes both cost and quality.

Summary

Gemini integration transforms your research workflow through:

  1. Real-time knowledge grounding - Access current research trends
  2. Large-scale synthesis - Analyze 100+ papers in a single context
  3. Intelligent citations - Context-aware citation suggestions
  4. Progressive summarization - Hierarchical content compression
  5. Visual content analysis - Extract insights from figures and tables

The key is letting Claude Code orchestrate while Gemini synthesizes. This division of labor creates a research workflow more powerful than either model alone.