tavilyAI-optimized web search using Tavily Search API. Use when you need comprehensive web research, current events lookup, domain-specific search, or AI-generated answer summaries. Tavily is optimized for LLM consumption with clean structured results, answer generation, and raw content extraction. Best for research tasks, news queries, fact-checking, and gathering authoritative sources.
Install via ClawdBot CLI:
clawdbot install bert-builder/tavilyTavily is a search engine specifically optimized for Large Language Models and AI applications. Unlike traditional search APIs, Tavily provides AI-ready results with optional answer generation, clean content extraction, and domain filtering capabilities.
Key capabilities:
basic) and comprehensive (advanced) search modesgraph TB
A[User Query] --> B{Search Mode}
B -->|basic| C[Fast Search<br/>1-2s response]
B -->|advanced| D[Comprehensive Search<br/>5-10s response]
C --> E[Tavily API]
D --> E
E --> F{Topic Filter}
F -->|general| G[Broad Web Search]
F -->|news| H[News Sources<br/>Last 7 days]
G --> I[Domain Filtering]
H --> I
I --> J{Include Domains?}
J -->|yes| K[Filter to Specific Domains]
J -->|no| L{Exclude Domains?}
K --> M[Search Results]
L -->|yes| N[Remove Unwanted Domains]
L -->|no| M
N --> M
M --> O{Response Options}
O --> P[AI Answer<br/>Summary]
O --> Q[Structured Results<br/>Title, URL, Content, Score]
O --> R[Images<br/>if requested]
O --> S[Raw HTML Content<br/>if requested]
P --> T[Return to Agent]
Q --> T
R --> T
S --> T
style E fill:#4A90E2
style P fill:#7ED321
style Q fill:#7ED321
style R fill:#F5A623
style S fill:#F5A623# Simple query with AI answer
scripts/tavily_search.py "What is quantum computing?"
# Multiple results
scripts/tavily_search.py "Python best practices" --max-results 10# Comprehensive research mode
scripts/tavily_search.py "Climate change solutions" --depth advanced
# News-focused search
scripts/tavily_search.py "AI developments 2026" --topic news# Search only trusted domains
scripts/tavily_search.py "Python tutorials" \
--include-domains python.org docs.python.org realpython.com
# Exclude low-quality sources
scripts/tavily_search.py "How to code" \
--exclude-domains w3schools.com geeksforgeeks.org# Include relevant images
scripts/tavily_search.py "Eiffel Tower architecture" --images| Mode | Speed | Coverage | Use Case |
|------|-------|----------|----------|
| basic | 1-2s | Good | Quick facts, simple queries |
| advanced | 5-10s | Excellent | Research, complex topics, comprehensive analysis |
Decision tree:
basicadvancedadvancedbasic| Topic | Time Range | Sources | Use Case |
|-------|------------|---------|----------|
| general | All time | Broad web | Evergreen content, tutorials, documentation |
| news | Last 7 days | News sites | Current events, recent developments, breaking news |
Decision tree:
newsgeneralnewsAdd to your Clawdbot config:
{
"skills": {
"entries": {
"tavily": {
"enabled": true,
"apiKey": "tvly-YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
}
}
}
}Access in scripts via Clawdbot's config system.
export TAVILY_API_KEY="tvly-YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"Add to ~/.clawdbot/.env or your shell profile.
tvly-)# Comprehensive research with answer
scripts/tavily_search.py "Explain quantum entanglement" --depth advanced
# Multiple authoritative sources
scripts/tavily_search.py "Best practices for REST API design" \
--max-results 10 \
--include-domains github.com microsoft.com google.com# Latest news
scripts/tavily_search.py "AI policy updates" --topic news
# Recent developments in a field
scripts/tavily_search.py "quantum computing breakthroughs" \
--topic news \
--depth advanced# Academic sources only
scripts/tavily_search.py "machine learning algorithms" \
--include-domains arxiv.org scholar.google.com ieee.org
# Technical documentation
scripts/tavily_search.py "React hooks guide" \
--include-domains react.dev# Gather visual references
scripts/tavily_search.py "modern web design trends" \
--images \
--max-results 10# Get raw HTML content for deeper analysis
scripts/tavily_search.py "Python async/await" \
--raw-content \
--max-results 5The AI-generated answer provides a concise summary synthesized from search results:
{
"answer": "Quantum computing is a type of computing that uses quantum-mechanical phenomena..."
}Use when:
Skip when (--no-answer):
Each result includes:
title: Page titleurl: Source URLcontent: Extracted text snippetscore: Relevance score (0-1)raw_content: Full HTML (if --raw-content enabled)When --images is enabled, returns URLs of relevant images found during search.
basic for most queries (faster, cheaper)advanced only when:Include domains for:
.edu domains)Exclude domains for:
basic depth as defaultmax_results to what you'll actually useinclude_raw_content unless neededThe script provides helpful error messages:
# Missing API key
Error: Tavily API key required
Setup: Set TAVILY_API_KEY environment variable or pass --api-key
# Package not installed
Error: tavily-python package not installed
To install: pip install tavily-pythonfrom tavily_search import search
result = search(
query="What is machine learning?",
api_key="tvly-...",
search_depth="advanced",
max_results=10
)
if result.get("success"):
print(result["answer"])
for item in result["results"]:
print(f"{item['title']}: {item['url']}")scripts/tavily_search.py "Python tutorials" --json > results.json# Search and extract content
scripts/tavily_search.py "React documentation" --json | \
jq -r '.results[].url' | \
xargs -I {} curl -s {}vs Brave Search:
vs Perplexity:
vs Google Custom Search:
# Make executable
chmod +x scripts/tavily_search.py
# Check Python version (requires 3.6+)
python3 --version
# Install dependencies
pip install tavily-python# Verify API key format (should start with tvly-)
echo $TAVILY_API_KEY
# Test with explicit key
scripts/tavily_search.py "test" --api-key "tvly-..."max_results to conserve creditsbasic depth instead of advancedSee api-reference.md for:
tavily-python package (install: pip install tavily-python)Generated Mar 1, 2026
Startups can use Tavily to gather competitive intelligence, analyze industry trends, and identify customer pain points by searching news and authoritative sources. It helps in validating business ideas and staying updated on market shifts without manual web scraping.
Researchers and students can leverage Tavily's domain filtering to search academic papers and credible sources like arXiv or IEEE, streamlining literature reviews. The AI answer feature provides quick summaries, saving time on initial topic exploration.
Content creators and journalists use Tavily to verify facts, gather up-to-date information from news sources, and extract raw content for in-depth articles. It ensures accuracy and enriches content with current data and visual references.
IT professionals and developers employ Tavily to search for solutions, tutorials, and documentation from trusted domains like official software sites. The advanced mode helps in complex problem-solving by providing comprehensive results and code examples.
Financial analysts use Tavily to monitor news on companies, gather industry reports, and filter sources for reliable data. It aids in assessing market conditions and making informed investment decisions with timely information.
Offer tiered subscription plans with varying search limits, speeds, and features like advanced search or image results. Revenue comes from monthly or annual fees paid by businesses and developers integrating the API into their applications.
Provide customized search engines for enterprises, embedding Tavily's technology into their internal tools or customer-facing platforms. Revenue is generated through licensing fees and ongoing support contracts tailored to client needs.
Implement a credit system where users purchase packs of search queries, with higher costs for advanced features like raw content extraction. This model appeals to occasional users and scales revenue based on actual usage.
💬 Integration Tip
Start with basic search mode for simple queries to minimize latency, and use environment variables for API key management to keep configurations secure and portable.
Summarize URLs or files with the summarize CLI (web, PDFs, images, audio, YouTube).
AI-optimized web search via Tavily API. Returns concise, relevant results for AI agents.
This skill should be used when users need to search the web for information, find current content, look up news articles, search for images, or find videos. It uses DuckDuckGo's search API to return results in clean, formatted output (text, markdown, or JSON). Use for research, fact-checking, finding recent information, or gathering web resources.
Web search and content extraction via Brave Search API. Use for searching documentation, facts, or any web content. Lightweight, no browser required.
Search indexed Discord community discussions via Answer Overflow. Find solutions to coding problems, library issues, and community Q&A that only exist in Discord conversations.
Multi search engine integration with 17 engines (8 CN + 9 Global). Supports advanced search operators, time filters, site search, privacy engines, and WolframAlpha knowledge queries. No API keys required.