search

Search the web using Tavily's LLM-optimized search API. Returns relevant results with content snippets, scores, and metadata. Use when you need to find web content on any topic without writing code.

Quality

76%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

Pending

No eval scenarios have been run

Securityby

Advisory

Suggest reviewing before use

Optimize this skill with Tessl

npx tessl skill review --optimize ./skills/tavily/search/SKILL.md

Search Skill

Search the web and get relevant results optimized for LLM consumption.

Authentication

The script uses OAuth via the Tavily MCP server. No manual setup required - on first run, it will:

Check for existing tokens in ~/.mcp-auth/
If none found, automatically open your browser for OAuth authentication

Note: You must have an existing Tavily account. The OAuth flow only supports login — account creation is not available through this flow. Sign up at tavily.com first if you don't have an account.

Alternative: API Key

If you prefer using an API key, get one at https://tavily.com and add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "env": {
    "TAVILY_API_KEY": "tvly-your-api-key-here"
  }
}

Quick Start

Using the Script

./scripts/search.sh '<json>'

Examples:

# Basic search
./scripts/search.sh '{"query": "python async patterns"}'

# With options
./scripts/search.sh '{"query": "React hooks tutorial", "max_results": 10}'

# Advanced search with filters
./scripts/search.sh '{"query": "AI news", "time_range": "week", "max_results": 10}'

# Domain-filtered search
./scripts/search.sh '{"query": "machine learning", "include_domains": ["arxiv.org", "github.com"], "search_depth": "advanced"}'

Basic Search

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.tavily.com/search \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "query": "latest developments in quantum computing",
    "max_results": 5
  }'

Advanced Search

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.tavily.com/search \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "query": "machine learning best practices",
    "max_results": 10,
    "search_depth": "advanced",
    "include_domains": ["arxiv.org", "github.com"]
  }'

API Reference

Endpoint

POST https://api.tavily.com/search

Headers

Header	Value
`Authorization`	`Bearer <TAVILY_API_KEY>`
`Content-Type`	`application/json`

Request Body

Field	Type	Default	Description
`query`	string	Required	Search query (keep under 400 chars)
`max_results`	integer	10	Maximum results (0-20)
`search_depth`	string	`"basic"`	`ultra-fast`, `fast`, `basic`, `advanced`
`topic`	string	`"general"`	Search topic (general only)
`time_range`	string	null	`day`, `week`, `month`, `year`
`start_date`	string	null	Return results after this date (`YYYY-MM-DD`)
`end_date`	string	null	Return results before this date (`YYYY-MM-DD`)
`include_domains`	array	[]	Domains to include (max 300)
`exclude_domains`	array	[]	Domains to exclude (max 150)
`country`	string	null	Boost results from a specific country (general topic only)
`include_raw_content`	boolean	false	Include full page content
`include_images`	boolean	false	Include image results
`include_image_descriptions`	boolean	false	Include descriptions for images
`include_favicon`	boolean	false	Include favicon URL for each result

Response Format

{
  "query": "latest developments in quantum computing",
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "Page Title",
      "url": "https://example.com/page",
      "content": "Extracted text snippet...",
      "score": 0.85
    }
  ],
  "response_time": 1.2
}

Search Depth

Depth	Latency	Relevance	Content Type
`ultra-fast`	Lowest	Lower	NLP summary
`fast`	Low	Good	Chunks
`basic`	Medium	High	NLP summary
`advanced`	Higher	Highest	Chunks

When to use each:

ultra-fast: Real-time chat, autocomplete
fast: Need chunks but latency matters
basic: General-purpose, balanced
advanced: Precision matters (default recommendation)

Examples

Domain-Filtered Search

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.tavily.com/search \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "query": "Python async best practices",
    "include_domains": ["docs.python.org", "realpython.com", "github.com"],
    "search_depth": "advanced"
  }'

Search with Full Content

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.tavily.com/search \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "query": "React hooks tutorial",
    "max_results": 3,
    "include_raw_content": true
  }'

Tips

Keep queries under 400 characters - Think search query, not prompt
Break complex queries into sub-queries - Better results than one massive query
Use include_domains to focus on trusted sources
Use time_range for recent information
Filter by score (0-1) to get highest relevance results

Repository: tavily-ai/skills
Commit: 1e2a6a0

Last updated: 24 days ago
Created: 24 days ago

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