openhuman/gitbooks/features/native-tools/web-search.md

description, icon

description	icon
A native search tool the agent can call directly - no API key required.	magnifying-glass

Web Search

The agent can search the live web on its own. Backed by a server-side proxy (Parallel) so you don't carry a search API key, the tool returns titles, snippets, and URLs ready to follow up on.

What it's good for

• Research - "what's the latest on X".
• Citation hunting - "find me three sources for Y".
• Fact-checking before answering - the agent runs a quick search if it isn't confident.

How it differs from generic HTTP

A pure http_request tool can fetch a URL but can't find one. Web Search is the discovery layer: it picks the right URLs for the agent, which then hands them off to the Web Scraper for the actual reading.

See also

• Web Scraper - fetch and clean a specific URL.
• Smart Token Compression - search snippets are compressed before they hit the model.