Web Search

Search the web using Brave, Serper, SearXNG, or Tavily. Requires API key configuration.

Overview

web_search lets the agent query a search engine and get back a ranked list of results with titles, URLs, and snippets. This is useful for current events, recent documentation, or researching topics the model may not know about.

The tool is config-gated - it checks for a configured search provider at startup and marks itself unavailable if none is found. This prevents the model from attempting searches that will always fail.

Supported Providers

Brave Search

Privacy-focused search engine with a dedicated API.

# settings.yml
integrations:
  webSearch:
    provider: brave
    apiKey: "BSA-xxxxxxxxxxxx"

Get your key at brave.com/search/api.

Serper

Google search results via the Serper API.

integrations:
  webSearch:
    provider: serper
    apiKey: "your-serper-key"

Get your key at serper.dev.

SearXNG

Self-hosted meta-search engine. No API key required.

integrations:
  webSearch:
    provider: searxng
    baseUrl: "https://your-searxng-instance.com"

Tavily

AI-optimized search API with clean result extraction.

integrations:
  webSearch:
    provider: tavily
    apiKey: "tvly-xxxxxxxxxxxx"

Get your key at tavily.com.

Tool: web_search

Security level: safe | Tier: Standard

query · string · required

The search query. Be specific - use terms like “site:docs.example.com” to scope searches.

count · number · default: "10"

Number of results to return. Range: 1-20.

Examples

General search

{
  "query": "Hono middleware error handling TypeScript 2026",
  "count": 5
}

Response Format

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "query": "Hono middleware error handling",
    "provider": "brave",
    "results": [
      {
        "title": "Error Handling - Hono",
        "url": "https://hono.dev/guides/error-handling",
        "snippet": "Hono has built-in error handling middleware..."
      }
    ],
    "totalResults": 5
  }
}

Checking Availability

You can check the current search configuration from the CLI:

profclaw config show --section integrations.webSearch

Or from within a conversation, the model can check availability programmatically before attempting a search.

Related Tools

Web Fetch

Fetch a specific URL once you have found it via search.

Browser Tools

Browse pages that require JavaScript execution.