Overview
Enable your AI to search the web in real-time and provide answers with inline citations. The tool supports multiple queries per request for comprehensive research.
Quick Start
Enable web search in chat.config.ts:
integrations: {
webSearch: true, // Requires TAVILY_API_KEY or FIRECRAWL_API_KEY
}
Environment Variables
Configure one of the supported search providers:
# Option 1: Tavily (recommended)
TAVILY_API_KEY=your_tavily_key
# Option 2: Firecrawl
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=your_firecrawl_key
If both keys are set, Tavily is used for regular chat and the provider can be
configured per-feature (e.g., deep research).
Providers
| Provider | Best For | Features |
|---|
| Tavily | General search | Topic filtering, news mode, domain exclusions |
| Firecrawl | Content extraction | High-quality markdown from web pages |
Tavily
Default provider with search-specific optimizations:
- Topics:
general or news (news limits to last 7 days)
- Search depth:
basic or advanced
- Domain filtering: Exclude specific domains from results
Firecrawl
Alternative provider focused on content quality. Returns clean markdown extracted from pages.
Features
Multi-Query Search
The tool accepts up to 2 queries per request, executed in parallel:
{
search_queries: [
{ query: "latest AI developments 2024", maxResults: 5 },
{ query: "machine learning trends", maxResults: 5 },
]
}
Inline Citations
Search results are displayed as collapsible source cards. The AI is instructed to cite sources inline when using retrieved information.
Progress Indicators
While searching, the UI shows:
- Search status (running/completed)
- Query text being executed
- Number of sources found
Returns search results grouped by query:
{
searches: [
{
query: { query: "...", maxResults: 5 },
results: [{ url: "...", title: "...", content: "..." }],
},
]
}
UI States
| State | Shows |
|---|
input-available | Progress indicator with query |
output-available | Collapsible source cards with titles and URLs |
Customization
The tool is defined in lib/ai/tools/web-search.ts. You can modify:
- Maximum queries per request (
MAX_SEARCH_QUERIES)
- Default results per query (
DEFAULT_MAX_RESULTS)
- Tool description to adjust AI behavior
Provider Selection
To use Firecrawl instead of Tavily for regular chat, modify lib/ai/tools/tools.ts:
webSearch: firecrawlWebSearch({
dataStream,
writeTopLevelUpdates: true,
costAccumulator,
}),
URL Retrieval
A separate retrieveUrl tool is available for fetching structured content from specific URLs (as opposed to searching the web). This tool uses Firecrawl to extract clean markdown from any webpage.
Enable in chat.config.ts:
integrations: {
urlRetrieval: true, // Requires FIRECRAWL_API_KEY
}
- Page title and description
- Clean markdown content
- Source URL and language metadata
Use web search for discovery and URL retrieval for extracting content from known URLs.
