Bailian Search

Real-time web search powered by Alibaba Cloud Bailian (DashScope) MCP service. Use when: user asks for latest news, real-time information, current events, or...

Security Scan

The skill's requirements, instructions, and code are coherent with a Bailian (DashScope) web-search integration and only require the expected API key and common tools (curl, python3).

Purpose & Capability

Name/description ask for real-time web search and the skill only requests curl, python3, and DASHSCOPE_API_KEY — all directly relevant to calling Bailian's MCP SSE endpoint.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md and search.sh limit behavior to establishing an SSE connection to dashscope.aliyuncs.com, parsing returned data, and printing results. There are no instructions to read unrelated files, exfiltrate data to foreign endpoints, or persist secrets to disk.

Install Mechanism

No install spec (instruction-only with a small helper script) — nothing is downloaded or written during an automated install step beyond typical OpenClaw skill installation; lowest-risk install model.

Credentials

Only DASHSCOPE_API_KEY is required, which is appropriate for authenticating to the DashScope API. No unrelated credentials or broad system secrets are requested.

Persistence & Privilege

Skill is not always-on and uses default autonomous invocation settings. It does not request special system-wide privileges or modify other skills' configuration.

Assessment

This skill appears to do what it claims: call Alibaba Bailian/DashScope to perform real-time searches using the DASHSCOPE_API_KEY. Before installing, verify the skill's source (registry/repository) since the provided source is 'unknown' in the metadata; prefer an official or well-known publisher. Treat your DASHSCOPE_API_KEY like any API secret: only store it in secure places, grant minimal permissions, and avoid using it for highly sensitive queries because queries are sent to an external service. If you want extra caution, inspect the search.sh file locally or run the skill in an isolated environment first. Finally, confirm any billing or usage implications on your Alibaba account and rotate the key if you believe it may have been exposed.

Real-time web search powered by Alibaba Cloud Bailian (DashScope) MCP service.

Overview

This skill integrates with Alibaba Cloud Bailian's Web Search MCP (Model Context Protocol) service, enabling AI assistants to retrieve real-time information from the internet, improving response accuracy and timeliness.

Features

• 🔍 Real-time web search
• 🌐 Global information coverage
• ⚡ Fast response via SSE (Server-Sent Events)
• 🔒 Secure API key management
• 🛠️ Easy integration with OpenClaw

Prerequisites

1. Alibaba Cloud Account: Register at Alibaba Cloud Bailian
2. API Key: Obtain a DashScope API Key from the console

Installation

Using ClawHub (Recommended)

openclaw skill install bailian-search
# or
clawhub install bailian-search

Manual Installation

# Clone to OpenClaw workspace
git clone <repository-url> ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/bailian-search

# Or download and extract to:
# ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/bailian-search/

Configuration

Set Environment Variable

Option 1: Temporary (current session)

export DASHSCOPE_API_KEY="your-dashscope-api-key"

Option 2: Permanent (recommended)

Add to your shell profile (~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc):

echo 'export DASHSCOPE_API_KEY="your-dashscope-api-key"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Option 3: OpenClaw Config

openclaw config set env.DASHSCOPE_API_KEY "your-dashscope-api-key"

Usage

Command Line

# After setting environment variable
./search.sh "latest tech news"

# Or one-liner
DASHSCOPE_API_KEY="your-key" ./search.sh "OpenAI GPT-5 release"

Via AI Assistant

Once configured, simply ask your AI assistant:

• "Search for today's tech news"
• "Find OpenAI's latest announcements"
• "Look up 2025 China EV sales data"

The AI will automatically use this skill to fetch real-time information.

How It Works

This skill connects to Alibaba Cloud Bailian's MCP SSE (Server-Sent Events) service:

1. Receives user search query
2. Establishes SSE connection to Bailian MCP server
3. Retrieves real-time search results
4. Returns structured content to the AI

MCP Configuration (Advanced)

For use with other MCP-compatible clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "WebSearch": {
      "type": "sse",
      "name": "Alibaba Cloud Bailian Web Search",
      "description": "Real-time web search powered by Tongyi Lab's Text-Embedding, GTE-reRank, Query Rewriting, and Search Judgment models.",
      "baseUrl": "https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/api/v1/mcps/WebSearch/sse",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${DASHSCOPE_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

API Reference

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
DASHSCOPE_API_KEY	Yes	Alibaba Cloud DashScope API Key

Command Arguments

./search.sh <query>

Argument	Type	Required	Description
query	string	Yes	Search query string

Troubleshooting

Error: "DASHSCOPE_API_KEY environment variable is not set"

Solution: Ensure the environment variable is set:

export DASHSCOPE_API_KEY="your-key"

Empty results or timeout

1. Verify your API key is valid
2. Check network connectivity
3. Bailian service may take time to respond, please be patient

How to get DashScope API Key?

1. Visit Alibaba Cloud Bailian Console
2. Register/login with Alibaba Cloud account
3. Create an API Key in the console
4. Copy the key and set it as environment variable

Privacy & Security

• Your API key is never hardcoded in the skill files
• API key is read from environment variables only
• No data is stored or logged by this skill
• All requests go directly to Alibaba Cloud servers

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please submit issues or pull requests via ClawHub.

Acknowledgments

• Alibaba Cloud Bailian (DashScope) for providing the MCP service
• OpenClaw team for the skill framework
• MCP community for the protocol specification

Links

• Alibaba Cloud Bailian
• DashScope Documentation
• OpenClaw Documentation
• ClawHub Registry