name: tavily-search
description: "Web search via Tavily API (alternative to Brave). Use when the user asks to search the web / look up sources / find links and Brave web_search is unavailable or undesired. Returns a small set of relevant results (title, url, snippet) and can optionally include short answer summaries."

Tavily Search

Use the bundled script to search the web with Tavily.

Requirements

• Provide API key via either:
• environment variable: TAVILY_API_KEY, or
• ~/.openclaw/.env line: TAVILY_API_KEY=...

Commands

Run from the OpenClaw workspace:

# raw JSON (default)
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/tavily_search.py --query "..." --max-results 5

# include short answer (if available)
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/tavily_search.py --query "..." --max-results 5 --include-answer

# stable schema (closer to web_search): {query, results:[{title,url,snippet}], answer?}
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/tavily_search.py --query "..." --max-results 5 --format brave

# human-readable Markdown list
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/tavily_search.py --query "..." --max-results 5 --format md

Output

raw (default)

• JSON: query, optional answer, results: [{title,url,content}]

brave

• JSON: query, optional answer, results: [{title,url,snippet}]

md

• A compact Markdown list with title/url/snippet.

Notes

• Keep max-results small by default (3–5) to reduce token/reading load.
• Prefer returning URLs + snippets; fetch full pages only when needed.