web_search: Research & Knowledge for AI Agents | OpenAgentSkill

Overview

Search the web and ingest results as wiki pages

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Web Search Skill

Accepts a natural language query, calls the Tavily AI search API, and returns the top matching URLs. Your agent receives those URLs and decides what to do with them — fetch each one, display them, pass them to another skill, etc.

Setup

1. Install the dependency:

pip install tavily-python

2. Set your Tavily API key (free tier: 1,000 searches/month — sign up at https://tavily.com, no credit card required):

# macOS / Linux
export TAVILY_API_KEY="tvly-your-key-here"

# Windows (Command Prompt)
set TAVILY_API_KEY=tvly-your-key-here

# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:TAVILY_API_KEY = "tvly-your-key-here"

3. Optional — cap the number of results (default: 20):

export SYNTHADOC_WEB_SEARCH_MAX_RESULTS=10

Standalone usage

import asyncio
from synthadoc.skills.web_search.scripts.main import WebSearchSkill

skill = WebSearchSkill()

async def main():
    result = await skill.extract("search for: transformer architecture papers")
    urls = result.metadata["child_sources"]   # list[str] — top matching URLs
    query = result.metadata["query"]          # "transformer architecture papers"
    print(f"Found {len(urls)} URLs for '{query}':")
    for url in urls:
        print(" ", url)

asyncio.run(main())

result.text is always empty — the skill is a discovery step that returns URLs, not page content. Pass the URLs to the url or youtube skill (or your own HTTP client) to fetch content.

Intent prefixes

The skill strips a leading intent phrase before sending the query to Tavily:

Input	Query sent to Tavily
`search for: RAG evaluation`	`RAG evaluation`
`find on the web: LLM benchmarks`	`LLM benchmarks`
`look up quantum computing`	`quantum computing`
`youtube: Karpathy transformers`	`Karpathy transformers` (YouTube only)
`搜索: 深度学习架构`	`深度学习架构`

YouTube-specific prefixes (youtube:, search youtube:, youtube video:, etc.) restrict the Tavily search to youtube.com and youtu.be.

CJK intent phrases supported: 查找, 搜索, 网络搜索, 在网上查, 查一下

Domain filtering

A built-in blocklist skips sites that block automated HTTP clients: reddit.com, medium.com, quora.com, twitter.com/x.com, linkedin.com, wikipedia.org, IEEE Xplore, ACM DL, and common subscription-only academic publishers.

If SYNTHADOC_WIKI_ROOT is set, the skill also loads $SYNTHADOC_WIKI_ROOT/.synthadoc/blocked_domains.json (a JSON array of domain strings) to extend the blocklist at runtime.

Scripts

scripts/main.py — WebSearchSkill: intent parsing, domain filtering, returns child_sources in metadata
scripts/fetcher.py — thin async wrapper around AsyncTavilyClient

Assets

assets/search-providers.json — search provider registry (currently Tavily)

Using with full Synthadoc

When running inside Synthadoc, the Orchestrator reads child_sources from the result metadata and automatically enqueues each URL as a separate ingest job, which are then processed by the url or youtube skill. No additional setup is required beyond the env vars above.

View source ↗

File metadata

name: web_search
version: "1.0"
description: Search the web and ingest results as wiki pages
entry:
  script: scripts/main.py
  class: WebSearchSkill
triggers:
  extensions: []
  intents:
    - "search for"
    - "find on the web"
    - "look up"
    - "web search"
    - "browse"
    - "youtube"
    - "查找"
    - "搜索"
    - "网络搜索"
    - "在网上查"
    - "查一下"
requires:
  - tavily-python
author: axoviq.com
license: AGPL-3.0-or-later

View original text

---
name: web_search
version: "1.0"
description: Search the web and ingest results as wiki pages
entry:
  script: scripts/main.py
  class: WebSearchSkill
triggers:
  extensions: []
  intents:
    - "search for"
    - "find on the web"
    - "look up"
    - "web search"
    - "browse"
    - "youtube"
    - "查找"
    - "搜索"
    - "网络搜索"
    - "在网上查"
    - "查一下"
requires:
  - tavily-python
author: axoviq.com
license: AGPL-3.0-or-later
---

# Web Search Skill

Accepts a natural language query, calls the Tavily AI search API, and
returns the top matching URLs. Your agent receives those URLs and decides
what to do with them — fetch each one, display them, pass them to another
skill, etc.

## Setup

**1. Install the dependency:**
```bash
pip install tavily-python
```

**2. Set your Tavily API key** (free tier: 1,000 searches/month — sign up at
https://tavily.com, no credit card required):
```bash
# macOS / Linux
export TAVILY_API_KEY="tvly-your-key-here"

# Windows (Command Prompt)
set TAVILY_API_KEY=tvly-your-key-here

# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:TAVILY_API_KEY = "tvly-your-key-here"
```

**3. Optional — cap the number of results** (default: 20):
```bash
export SYNTHADOC_WEB_SEARCH_MAX_RESULTS=10
```

## Standalone usage

```python
import asyncio
from synthadoc.skills.web_search.scripts.main import WebSearchSkill

skill = WebSearchSkill()

async def main():
    result = await skill.extract("search for: transformer architecture papers")
    urls = result.metadata["child_sources"]   # list[str] — top matching URLs
    query = result.metadata["query"]          # "transformer architecture papers"
    print(f"Found {len(urls)} URLs for '{query}':")
    for url in urls:
        print(" ", url)

asyncio.run(main())
```

`result.text` is always empty — the skill is a discovery step that returns
URLs, not page content. Pass the URLs to the `url` or `youtube` skill (or
your own HTTP client) to fetch content.

## Intent prefixes

The skill strips a leading intent phrase before sending the query to Tavily:

| Input | Query sent to Tavily |
|---|---|
| `search for: RAG evaluation` | `RAG evaluation` |
| `find on the web: LLM benchmarks` | `LLM benchmarks` |
| `look up quantum computing` | `quantum computing` |
| `youtube: Karpathy transformers` | `Karpathy transformers` (YouTube only) |
| `搜索: 深度学习架构` | `深度学习架构` |

YouTube-specific prefixes (`youtube:`, `search youtube:`, `youtube video:`,
etc.) restrict the Tavily search to `youtube.com` and `youtu.be`.

CJK intent phrases supported: 查找, 搜索, 网络搜索, 在网上查, 查一下

## Domain filtering

A built-in blocklist skips sites that block automated HTTP clients:
`reddit.com`, `medium.com`, `quora.com`, `twitter.com`/`x.com`,
`linkedin.com`, `wikipedia.org`, IEEE Xplore, ACM DL, and common
subscription-only academic publishers.

If `SYNTHADOC_WIKI_ROOT` is set, the skill also loads
`$SYNTHADOC_WIKI_ROOT/.synthadoc/blocked_domains.json` (a JSON array of
domain strings) to extend the blocklist at runtime.

## Scripts

- `scripts/main.py` — `WebSearchSkill`: intent parsing, domain filtering,
  returns `child_sources` in metadata
- `scripts/fetcher.py` — thin async wrapper around `AsyncTavilyClient`

## Assets

- `assets/search-providers.json` — search provider registry (currently Tavily)

## Using with full Synthadoc

When running inside Synthadoc, the Orchestrator reads `child_sources` from
the result metadata and automatically enqueues each URL as a separate ingest
job, which are then processed by the `url` or `youtube` skill. No additional
setup is required beyond the env vars above.

Review the source

Skill source recorded

Skill instructions are recorded. This is not a runtime test, safety guarantee or compatibility certification.

Review before install: Avoid automatic install

License: AGPL-3.0-or-later

Dependency or permission surface needs review
Permission surface may require sandboxing
The SKILL.md description says 'Search the web and ingest results as wiki pages' but the skill only returns URLs; actual ingestion is left to other skills. This could be clarified to avoid confusion.
The domain blocklist is quite aggressive (blocks Wikipedia, Reddit, etc.), which may reduce usefulness for some queries, but it is documented and configurable.
Quality score needs review
Permission surface needs review: secrets or environment access, shell or command execution
Dependency/runtime risk: command execution surface, credential or environment access
Permission surface: secrets or environment access, shell or command execution

Open full audit

Listed tools are metadata hints, not tested compatibility. Agent prompts are suggested handoffs.

Start with one small task

1Read the source. Confirm the input, expected output, dependencies and permissions.
2

Source & usage notes

Indexed

Repository metadata and review signals are advisory. Popularity, source discovery and successful execution are different facts.

Source repository: axoviq-ai/synthadoc
License: AGPL-3.0-or-later
Version: 1.0.0
Last GitHub push: Sep 4, 2026
Registry updated: Sep 4, 2026
Instruction path: synthadoc/skills/web_search/SKILL.md @ b1d9b7f7f4f4

Version reported in registry metadata; check source releases before relying on it.

Quality

77/100

Strong

Trust

60/100

Agent access

This page exposes the same decision, trust, audit, use-case, and install signals through the Registry API, so agents can rank this skill without scraping the UI.

Open install API LLM text format Open manifest Auto-resolve Plan

More details

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Source: axoviq-ai/synthadoc
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