GLM Search Pro

Web search via Zhipu GLM — supports both MCP (mcporter) and cURL (REST API) backends. Provides multi-engine search (Pro, Sogou, Quark, Std) with intent recognition, time range filtering, domain filtering, and configurable result count/detail level. Use when the agent needs to search the web, look up current information, find news, or retrieve online resources. Works from China without VPN. Trigger on: "search the web", "web search", "look up", "find online", "latest news", "search for", "google for", "联网搜索", "在线搜索", "查最新", "搜索一下".

Web search powered by Zhipu GLM, with dual-backend support: cURL (REST API, preferred) and MCP (via mcporter).

Credentials

This skill requires a Zhipu API key, provided via the ZHIPU_API_KEY environment variable.

cURL mode (preferred)

No setup required. The key is read from $ZHIPU_API_KEY at runtime and sent via HTTP Authorization: Bearer header. In cURL mode, no files are written to disk.

MCP mode (advanced)

If you need MCP mode, setup.sh will write a config file to disk:

File	What it contains	Permissions
~/.openclaw/config/mcporter/mcporter.json	MCP server URL with API key as query param	600 (owner-only)
~/.openclaw/config/mcporter/ directory	Parent directory	700 (owner-only)

Important: The Zhipu MCP broker endpoint requires the API key as a URL query parameter (Authorization=<key>). This is how their SSE endpoint works — the key cannot be passed via HTTP header for MCP connections. Setup writes this to mcporter.json with 600 permissions. If this is not acceptable, use cURL mode only (which passes the key via Authorization header at runtime and writes nothing to disk).

What this skill reads

Source	When	Purpose
$ZHIPU_API_KEY env var	Every search (cURL mode), and during setup (MCP mode)	API key

Recommendation

For maximum security, use cURL mode and skip setup.sh. MCP mode is provided as a convenience but requires persisting the key on disk due to the Zhipu MCP broker's authentication design.

Quick Start

# Set your API key
export ZHIPU_API_KEY="your-api-key"

# Search (cURL mode, no setup needed)
bash scripts/glm-search.sh "your query"

# With options
bash scripts/glm-search.sh -q "latest AI news" -c 20 -r oneWeek -e quark

Backends

The script auto-selects the best available backend:

1. cURL mode (preferred) — curl + ZHIPU_API_KEY env var. Key sent via HTTP header. Nothing written to disk.
2. MCP mode (advanced) — mcporter + config from setup.sh. Key stored in config file for MCP broker auth.

Force a specific mode with --curl or --mcp.

Search Engines

Engine	Flag	Best For
Pro	-e pro	General purpose, best quality (default)
Quark	-e quark	Advanced scenarios, Chinese content
Sogou	-e sogou	China domestic content
Std	-e std	Basic search, Q&A

Parameters

Flag	Long	Default	Description
-q	--query	—	Search text (required, ≤70 chars recommended)
-c	--count	10	Number of results (1-50)
-e	--engine	pro	pro, sogou, quark, std
-r	--recency	noLimit	noLimit, oneYear, oneMonth, oneWeek, oneDay
-s	--size	medium	medium (400-600 chars) or high (up to 2500)
-i	--intent	off	Enable search intent recognition (cURL only)
-d	--domain	—	Restrict results to specific domain
	--curl	—	Force cURL backend
	--mcp	—	Force MCP backend

Examples

# Basic search (cURL mode auto-selected)
glm-search "OpenClaw framework"

# Recent news, more results
glm-search -q "AI news" -c 20 -r oneWeek

# Chinese content via Sogou
glm-search -q "最新科技新闻" -e sogou -r oneDay

# Domain-specific search
glm-search -q "Python async" -d docs.python.org

# Intent recognition (cURL only)
glm-search -i "What is machine learning"

Response Format

{
  "id": "task-id",
  "created": 1704067200,
  "search_result": [
    {
      "title": "Page Title",
      "content": "Page summary...",
      "link": "https://example.com",
      "media": "Source Name",
      "refer": "ref_1",
      "publish_date": "2026-04-27"
    }
  ]
}

Architecture

glm-search (script)
├── cURL mode (preferred)
│   └── curl + $ZHIPU_API_KEY → Authorization: Bearer header → Zhipu REST API
└── MCP mode (advanced, requires setup)
    └── mcporter → config from setup.sh → Zhipu MCP Broker SSE endpoint

Setup (MCP mode only)

export ZHIPU_API_KEY="your-api-key"
bash scripts/setup.sh

This is only needed for MCP mode. cURL mode works immediately with ZHIPU_API_KEY set.

Configuring the API Key for OpenClaw Gateway

The skill requires ZHIPU_API_KEY to be available in the Gateway process environment. If openclaw skills check shows △ needs setup for this skill, the key is missing.

Systemd (Linux, recommended)

If the Gateway runs as a systemd user service:

# Edit the service override
systemctl --user edit openclaw-gateway

# Add the following in the editor:
[Service]
Environment=ZHIPU_API_KEY=your-api-key-here

# Then reload and restart
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway

Or create the file manually:

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/openclaw-gateway.service.d
cat > ~/.config/systemd/user/openclaw-gateway.service.d/override.conf << 'EOF'
[Service]
Environment=ZHIPU_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
EOF
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway

Docker / manual

Set the environment variable before starting the Gateway:

export ZHIPU_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Or add it to your .env / docker-compose.yml as appropriate.

Verify

After restarting, confirm the skill is ready:

openclaw skills check
# Should show: ✓ glm-search-pro (no longer "needs setup")

Prerequisites

• Zhipu API key — https://open.bigmodel.cn (set as ZHIPU_API_KEY env var)
• curl — pre-installed on most systems
• python3 — used by setup.sh for JSON config generation
• mcporter (optional, for MCP mode) — npm i -g mcporter (invoked via npx)

Troubleshooting

See references/api-notes.md for detailed API reference and common issues.