openclaw/docs/tools/web.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
Web search + fetch tools (Brave, Perplexity, Gemini, Grok, and Kimi providers)	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 Gemini with Google Search grounding	Web Tools

Web tools

OpenClaw ships two lightweight web tools:

• web_search — Search the web via Brave Search API (default), Perplexity Sonar, Gemini with Google Search grounding, Grok, or Kimi.
• 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.
  • Gemini: returns AI-synthesized answers grounded in Google Search with citations.
• 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	Traditional search results; AI-use terms apply	BRAVE_API_KEY
Perplexity	AI-synthesized answers, citations, real-time	Requires Perplexity or OpenRouter access	OPENROUTER_API_KEY or PERPLEXITY_API_KEY
Gemini	Google Search grounding, AI-synthesized	Requires Gemini API key	GEMINI_API_KEY
Grok	xAI web-grounded responses	Requires xAI API key	XAI_API_KEY
Kimi	Moonshot web search capability	Requires Moonshot API key	KIMI_API_KEY / MOONSHOT_API_KEY

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

Auto-detection

If no provider is explicitly set, OpenClaw auto-detects which provider to use based on available API keys, checking in this order:

1. Brave — BRAVE_API_KEY env var or tools.web.search.apiKey config
2. Gemini — GEMINI_API_KEY env var or tools.web.search.gemini.apiKey config
3. Kimi — KIMI_API_KEY / MOONSHOT_API_KEY env var or tools.web.search.kimi.apiKey config
4. Perplexity — PERPLEXITY_API_KEY / OPENROUTER_API_KEY env var or tools.web.search.perplexity.apiKey config
5. Grok — XAI_API_KEY env var or tools.web.search.grok.apiKey config

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

Explicit provider

Set the provider in config:

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "brave", // or "perplexity" or "gemini" or "grok" or "kimi"
      },
    },
  },
}

Example: switch to Perplexity Sonar (direct API):

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

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 paid plans; check the Brave API portal for the current limits and pricing.

Brave Terms include restrictions on some AI-related uses of Search Results. Review the Brave Terms of Service and confirm your intended use is compliant. For legal questions, consult your counsel.

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

Using Gemini (Google Search grounding)

Gemini models support built-in Google Search grounding, which returns AI-synthesized answers backed by live Google Search results with citations.

Getting a Gemini API key

1. Go to Google AI Studio
2. Create an API key
3. Set GEMINI_API_KEY in the Gateway environment, or configure tools.web.search.gemini.apiKey

Setting up Gemini search

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "gemini",
        gemini: {
          // API key (optional if GEMINI_API_KEY is set)
          apiKey: "AIza...",
          // Model (defaults to "gemini-2.5-flash")
          model: "gemini-2.5-flash",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

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

Notes

• Citation URLs from Gemini grounding are automatically resolved from Google's redirect URLs to direct URLs.
• Redirect resolution uses the SSRF guard path (HEAD + redirect checks + http/https validation) before returning the final citation URL.
• Redirect resolution uses strict SSRF defaults, so redirects to private/internal targets are blocked.
• The default model (gemini-2.5-flash) is fast and cost-effective. Any Gemini model that supports grounding can be used.

web_search

Search the web using your configured provider.

Requirements

• tools.web.search.enabled must not be false (default: enabled)
• API key for your chosen provider:
  • Brave: BRAVE_API_KEY or tools.web.search.apiKey
  • Perplexity: OPENROUTER_API_KEY, PERPLEXITY_API_KEY, or tools.web.search.perplexity.apiKey
  • Gemini: GEMINI_API_KEY or tools.web.search.gemini.apiKey
  • Grok: XAI_API_KEY or tools.web.search.grok.apiKey
  • Kimi: KIMI_API_KEY, MOONSHOT_API_KEY, or tools.web.search.kimi.apiKey

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): filter by discovery time
  • Brave: pd, pw, pm, py, or YYYY-MM-DDtoYYYY-MM-DD
  • Perplexity: pd, pw, pm, py

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.

web_fetch requirements

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

web_fetch config

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      fetch: {
        enabled: true,
        maxChars: 50000,
        maxCharsCap: 50000,
        maxResponseBytes: 2000000,
        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,
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

web_fetch 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).
• maxChars is clamped to tools.web.fetch.maxCharsCap.
• web_fetch caps the downloaded response body size to tools.web.fetch.maxResponseBytes before parsing; oversized responses are truncated and include a warning.
• 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.