openclaw/docs/tools/web.md

summary	read_when
Web search + fetch tools (Brave Search API, Perplexity direct/OpenRouter, SearXNG)	You want to enable web_search or web_fetch You need Brave Search API key setup You want to use Perplexity Sonar for web search You want to use SearXNG for web search

Web tools

OpenClaw ships two lightweight web tools:

• web_search — Search the web via Brave Search API (default), Perplexity Sonar (direct or via OpenRouter), or a self-hosted SearXNG instance.
• web_fetch — HTTP fetch + readable extraction (HTML → markdown/text).

These are not browser automation. For JS-heavy sites or logins, use the Browser tool.

How it works

• web_search calls your configured provider and returns results.
  • Brave (default): returns structured results (title, URL, snippet).
  • Perplexity: returns AI-synthesized answers with citations from real-time web search.
  • SearXNG: returns structured results (title, URL, snippet) from your own meta-search instance.
• Results are cached by query for 15 minutes (configurable).
• web_fetch does a plain HTTP GET and extracts readable content (HTML → markdown/text). It does not execute JavaScript.
• web_fetch is enabled by default (unless explicitly disabled).

Choosing a search provider

Provider	Pros	Cons	API Key
Brave (default)	Fast, structured results, free tier	Traditional search results	BRAVE_API_KEY
Perplexity	AI-synthesized answers, citations, real-time	Requires Perplexity or OpenRouter access	OPENROUTER_API_KEY or PERPLEXITY_API_KEY
SearXNG	Self-hosted, works in private environments, flexible	Requires running SearXNG and enabling JSON format	None (needs base URL)

See Brave Search setup and Perplexity Sonar for provider-specific details.

Set the provider in config:

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "brave"  // or "perplexity" or "searxng"
      }
    }
  }
}

Example: switch to Perplexity Sonar (direct API):

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "perplexity",
        perplexity: {
          apiKey: "pplx-...",
          baseUrl: "https://api.perplexity.ai",
          model: "perplexity/sonar-pro"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Using SearXNG

SearXNG exposes a simple HTTP API at /search. To get JSON results you need format=json enabled on your instance; some public instances disable it and will return 403 Forbidden.

Example config:

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        enabled: true,
        provider: "searxng",
        searxng: {
          baseUrl: "http://localhost:8080",
          // Optional extra query params merged into each request:
          // params: { categories: "general", safesearch: 1 }
          // Optional auth via headers (for reverse-proxy auth):
          // headers: { "X-Api-Key": "..." }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Getting a Brave API key

1. Create a Brave Search API account at https://brave.com/search/api/
2. In the dashboard, choose the Data for Search plan (not “Data for AI”) and generate an API key.
3. Run openclaw configure --section web to store the key in config (recommended), or set BRAVE_API_KEY in your environment.

Brave provides a free tier plus paid plans; check the Brave API portal for the current limits and pricing.

Where to set the key (recommended)

Recommended: run openclaw configure --section web. It stores the key in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under tools.web.search.apiKey.

Environment alternative: set BRAVE_API_KEY in the Gateway process environment. For a gateway install, put it in ~/.openclaw/.env (or your service environment). See Env vars.

Using Perplexity (direct or via OpenRouter)

Perplexity Sonar models have built-in web search capabilities and return AI-synthesized answers with citations. You can use them via OpenRouter (no credit card required - supports crypto/prepaid).

Getting an OpenRouter API key

1. Create an account at https://openrouter.ai/
2. Add credits (supports crypto, prepaid, or credit card)
3. Generate an API key in your account settings

Setting up Perplexity search

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        enabled: true,
        provider: "perplexity",
        perplexity: {
          // API key (optional if OPENROUTER_API_KEY or PERPLEXITY_API_KEY is set)
          apiKey: "sk-or-v1-...",
          // Base URL (key-aware default if omitted)
          baseUrl: "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
          // Model (defaults to perplexity/sonar-pro)
          model: "perplexity/sonar-pro"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Environment alternative: set OPENROUTER_API_KEY or PERPLEXITY_API_KEY in the Gateway environment. For a gateway install, put it in ~/.openclaw/.env.

If no base URL is set, OpenClaw chooses a default based on the API key source:

• PERPLEXITY_API_KEY or pplx-... → https://api.perplexity.ai
• OPENROUTER_API_KEY or sk-or-... → https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
• Unknown key formats → OpenRouter (safe fallback)

Available Perplexity models

Model	Description	Best for
perplexity/sonar	Fast Q&A with web search	Quick lookups
perplexity/sonar-pro (default)	Multi-step reasoning with web search	Complex questions
perplexity/sonar-reasoning-pro	Chain-of-thought analysis	Deep research

web_search

Search the web using your configured provider.

Requirements

• tools.web.search.enabled must not be false (default: enabled)
• Provider setup:
  • Brave: BRAVE_API_KEY or tools.web.search.apiKey
  • Perplexity: OPENROUTER_API_KEY, PERPLEXITY_API_KEY, or tools.web.search.perplexity.apiKey
  • SearXNG: tools.web.search.searxng.baseUrl or SEARXNG_BASE_URL

Config

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        enabled: true,
        apiKey: "BRAVE_API_KEY_HERE", // optional if BRAVE_API_KEY is set
        maxResults: 5,
        timeoutSeconds: 30,
        cacheTtlMinutes: 15
      }
    }
  }
}

Tool parameters

• query (required)
• count (1–10; default from config)
• country (optional): 2-letter country code for region-specific results (e.g., "DE", "US", "ALL"). If omitted, Brave chooses its default region.
• search_lang (optional): ISO language code for search results (e.g., "de", "en", "fr")
• ui_lang (optional): ISO language code for UI elements
• freshness (optional, Brave only): filter by discovery time (pd, pw, pm, py, or YYYY-MM-DDtoYYYY-MM-DD)
• categories (optional, SearXNG only): comma-separated categories
• engines (optional, SearXNG only): comma-separated engines
• language (optional, SearXNG only): language code (if omitted, falls back to search_lang)
• time_range (optional, SearXNG only): day, month, year
• safesearch (optional, SearXNG only): 0, 1, 2
• pageno (optional, SearXNG only): page number (default 1)

Examples:

// German-specific search
await web_search({
  query: "TV online schauen",
  count: 10,
  country: "DE",
  search_lang: "de"
});

// French search with French UI
await web_search({
  query: "actualités",
  country: "FR",
  search_lang: "fr",
  ui_lang: "fr"
});

// Recent results (past week)
await web_search({
  query: "TMBG interview",
  freshness: "pw"
});

web_fetch

Fetch a URL and extract readable content.

Requirements

• tools.web.fetch.enabled must not be false (default: enabled)
• Optional Firecrawl fallback: set tools.web.fetch.firecrawl.apiKey or FIRECRAWL_API_KEY.

Config

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      fetch: {
        enabled: true,
        maxChars: 50000,
        timeoutSeconds: 30,
        cacheTtlMinutes: 15,
        maxRedirects: 3,
        userAgent: "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 14_7_2) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
        readability: true,
        firecrawl: {
          enabled: true,
          apiKey: "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY_HERE", // optional if FIRECRAWL_API_KEY is set
          baseUrl: "https://api.firecrawl.dev",
          onlyMainContent: true,
          maxAgeMs: 86400000, // ms (1 day)
          timeoutSeconds: 60
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Tool parameters

• url (required, http/https only)
• extractMode (markdown | text)
• maxChars (truncate long pages)

Notes:

• web_fetch uses Readability (main-content extraction) first, then Firecrawl (if configured). If both fail, the tool returns an error.
• Firecrawl requests use bot-circumvention mode and cache results by default.
• web_fetch sends a Chrome-like User-Agent and Accept-Language by default; override userAgent if needed.
• web_fetch blocks private/internal hostnames and re-checks redirects (limit with maxRedirects).
• web_fetch is best-effort extraction; some sites will need the browser tool.
• See Firecrawl for key setup and service details.
• Responses are cached (default 15 minutes) to reduce repeated fetches.
• If you use tool profiles/allowlists, add web_search/web_fetch or group:web.
• If the Brave key is missing, web_search returns a short setup hint with a docs link.