Felo AI Search

AI-synthesized web search via Felo API — aggregates 15-40 sources into structured summaries. Use when: (1) researching a topic that needs multi-source synthe...

Use Felo AI for comprehensive, AI-summarized web search when you need:

• Multiple sources consolidated into structured insights
• Trending topics with context (community scanning)
• Research questions requiring cross-source synthesis

Do NOT use for:

• Time-sensitive queries requiring exact timestamps
• Single-source lookups (use web_fetch instead)
• When speed is critical (Felo takes ~15 seconds vs web_search ~1 second)

Setup

1. Sign up at felo.ai and get an API key from Settings → API Keys
2. Store the key in one of these ways:
   • Environment variable (recommended): export FELO_API_KEY="your-key-here"
   • File (set strict permissions):

     mkdir -p ~/.config/felo
     echo "your-key-here" > ~/.config/felo/api_key
     chmod 600 ~/.config/felo/api_key
     

Basic Usage

curl -s -X POST https://openapi.felo.ai/v2/chat \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${FELO_API_KEY:-$(cat ~/.config/felo/api_key 2>/dev/null)}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "Your search query here (1-2000 chars)"}' | jq .

Response Structure

{
  "status": "ok",
  "data": {
    "answer": "AI-generated summary...",
    "query_analysis": {
      "queries": ["optimized", "search", "terms"]
    },
    "resources": [
      {
        "link": "https://...",
        "title": "Source title",
        "snippet": "Relevant excerpt"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Key fields:

• data.answer — AI-synthesized answer (use for summaries)
• data.resources — Source links (typically 15-40 sources)

Common Patterns

Community Scanning

curl -s -X POST https://openapi.felo.ai/v2/chat \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${FELO_API_KEY:-$(cat ~/.config/felo/api_key 2>/dev/null)}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "What are the top 5 trending topics in the OpenClaw AI agent community this week? Include specific discussions from Reddit, GitHub, X (Twitter), forums, and blogs. Provide source links."
  }' > /tmp/felo_result.json

ANSWER=$(jq -r '.data.answer' /tmp/felo_result.json)
SOURCES=$(jq -r '.data.resources[0:10] | .[] | "- [\(.title)](\(.link))"' /tmp/felo_result.json)
SOURCE_COUNT=$(jq '.data.resources | length' /tmp/felo_result.json)

Rate Limits

• Default: 100 requests/minute per API key
• Response headers: X-RateLimit-*
• Handle 429 errors with exponential backoff

Error Handling

Common errors:

• INVALID_API_KEY (401) — Check your API key
• QUERY_TOO_LONG (400) — Max 2000 chars
• RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED (429) — Slow down requests

When to Use vs web_search

Use Case	Tool	Reason
Community trends (5+ sources)	Felo	AI synthesis, broader coverage
Specific site search	web_search	Precise site: operator
Need timestamps	web_search	Felo has no time metadata
Cross-source analysis	Felo	AI-generated insights
Speed-critical	web_search	~1s vs ~15s

Notes

• Felo returns 15-40 sources but no timestamps
• Query can include time hints ("this week", "recent") but results are not guaranteed to be time-filtered
• Best for trend detection and topic synthesis, not time-sensitive monitoring