Web Search

Web Search

The web_search tool searches the web using your configured provider and returns results. Results are cached by query for 15 minutes (configurable).

web_search is a lightweight HTTP tool, not browser automation. For JS-heavy sites or logins, use the Web Browser. For fetching a specific URL, use Web Fetch.

Quick start

1. Get an API key

   Pick a provider and get an API key. See the provider pages below for sign-up links.

2. Configure

   openclaw configure --section web
   

   This stores the key and sets the provider. You can also set an env var (e.g. BRAVE_API_KEY) and skip this step.

3. Use it

   The agent can now call web_search:

   await web_search({ query: "OpenClaw plugin SDK" });
   

Choosing a provider

Brave Search

Structured results with snippets. Supports llm-context mode, country/language filters. Free tier available.

DuckDuckGo

Key-free fallback. No API key needed. Unofficial HTML-based integration.

Exa

Neural + keyword search with content extraction (highlights, text, summaries).

Firecrawl

Structured results. Best paired with firecrawl_search and firecrawl_scrape for deep extraction.

Gemini

AI-synthesized answers with citations via Google Search grounding.

Grok

AI-synthesized answers with citations via xAI web grounding.

Kimi

AI-synthesized answers with citations via Moonshot web search.

Perplexity

Structured results with content extraction controls and domain filtering.

Tavily

Structured results with search depth, topic filtering, and tavily_extract for URL extraction.

Provider comparison

Provider	Result style	Filters	API key
Brave	Structured snippets	Country, language, time, llm-context mode	BRAVE_API_KEY
DuckDuckGo	Structured snippets	—	None (key-free)
Exa	Structured + extracted	Neural/keyword mode, date, content extraction	EXA_API_KEY
Firecrawl	Structured snippets	Via firecrawl_search tool	FIRECRAWL_API_KEY
Gemini	AI-synthesized + citations	—	GEMINI_API_KEY
Grok	AI-synthesized + citations	—	XAI_API_KEY
Kimi	AI-synthesized + citations	—	KIMI_API_KEY / MOONSHOT_API_KEY
Perplexity	Structured snippets	Country, language, time, domains, content limits	PERPLEXITY_API_KEY / OPENROUTER_API_KEY
Tavily	Structured snippets	Via tavily_search tool	TAVILY_API_KEY

Auto-detection

Provider lists in docs and setup flows are alphabetical. Auto-detection keeps a separate precedence order:

If no provider is set, OpenClaw checks for API keys in this order and uses the first one found:

1. Brave — BRAVE_API_KEY or plugins.entries.brave.config.webSearch.apiKey
2. Gemini — GEMINI_API_KEY or plugins.entries.google.config.webSearch.apiKey
3. Grok — XAI_API_KEY or plugins.entries.xai.config.webSearch.apiKey
4. Kimi — KIMI_API_KEY / MOONSHOT_API_KEY or plugins.entries.moonshot.config.webSearch.apiKey
5. Perplexity — PERPLEXITY_API_KEY / OPENROUTER_API_KEY or plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.apiKey
6. Firecrawl — FIRECRAWL_API_KEY or plugins.entries.firecrawl.config.webSearch.apiKey
7. Tavily — TAVILY_API_KEY or plugins.entries.tavily.config.webSearch.apiKey

If no keys are found, it falls back to Brave (you will get a missing-key error prompting you to configure one).

All provider key fields support SecretRef objects. In auto-detect mode, OpenClaw resolves only the selected provider key — non-selected SecretRefs stay inactive.

Config

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        enabled: true, // default: true
        provider: "brave", // or omit for auto-detection
        maxResults: 5,
        timeoutSeconds: 30,
        cacheTtlMinutes: 15,
      },
    },
  },
}

Provider-specific config (API keys, base URLs, modes) lives under plugins.entries.<plugin>.config.webSearch.*. See the provider pages for examples.

Storing API keys

Config file

Run openclaw configure --section web or set the key directly:

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      brave: {
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            apiKey: "YOUR_KEY", // pragma: allowlist secret
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Environment variable

Set the provider env var in the Gateway process environment:

export BRAVE_API_KEY="YOUR_KEY"

For a gateway install, put it in ~/.openclaw/.env. See Env vars.

Tool parameters

Parameter	Description
query	Search query (required)
count	Results to return (1-10, default: 5)
country	2-letter ISO country code (e.g. “US”, “DE”)
language	ISO 639-1 language code (e.g. “en”, “de”)
freshness	Time filter: day, week, month, or year
date_after	Results after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
date_before	Results before this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
ui_lang	UI language code (Brave only)
domain_filter	Domain allowlist/denylist array (Perplexity only)
max_tokens	Total content budget, default 25000 (Perplexity only)
max_tokens_per_page	Per-page token limit, default 2048 (Perplexity only)

Not all parameters work with all providers. Brave llm-context mode rejects ui_lang, freshness, date_after, and date_before. Firecrawl and Tavily only support query and count through web_search — use their dedicated tools for advanced options.

Examples

// Basic search
await web_search({ query: "OpenClaw plugin SDK" });

// German-specific search
await web_search({ query: "TV online schauen", country: "DE", language: "de" });

// Recent results (past week)
await web_search({ query: "AI developments", freshness: "week" });

// Date range
await web_search({
  query: "climate research",
  date_after: "2024-01-01",
  date_before: "2024-06-30",
});

// Domain filtering (Perplexity only)
await web_search({
  query: "product reviews",
  domain_filter: ["-reddit.com", "-pinterest.com"],
});

Tool profiles

If you use tool profiles or allowlists, add web_search or group:web:

{
  tools: {
    allow: ["web_search"],
    // or: allow: ["group:web"]  (includes both web_search and web_fetch)
  },
}

Related

• Web Fetch — fetch a URL and extract readable content
• Web Browser — full browser automation for JS-heavy sites

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This page is sourced from openclaw/openclaw.