Tavily Search

Search the web using Tavily's Search API. Returns relevant, accurate results with content snippets, scores, and metadata. Use when the user asks to search the web, look up sources, find links, or research a topic.

Search Skill

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

Requirements

Set your API key as an environment variable:

export TAVILY_API_KEY=tvly-...

Get an API key at tavily.com.

Quick Start

The script accepts a single --json argument — the raw Tavily API request body. The JSON maps 1:1 to the Tavily Search API.

./scripts/search.sh --json '{"query": "python async patterns"}'

Examples:

# Quick lookup
./scripts/search.sh --json '{"query": "OpenAI latest funding round"}'

# More results
./scripts/search.sh --json '{"query": "Stripe documentation", "max_results": 10}'

# Recent news only
./scripts/search.sh --json '{"query": "Landscape of electric vehicles 2026", "time_range": "week", "max_results": 10}'

# Scoped to specific sources
./scripts/search.sh --json '{"query": "NVIDIA stock analysis", "search_depth": "advanced"}'

Equivalent curl

The script is a thin wrapper around this call:

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
  }'

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"	basic, advanced
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
exclude_domains	array	[]	Domains to exclude
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
basic	Medium	High	NLP summary
advanced	Higher	Highest	Chunks

When to use each:

• basic: General-purpose, balanced
• advanced: Precision matters (default recommendation)

Data Handling

Never include in the JSON body:

• Secrets, API keys, or credentials
• Personal or sensitive user data

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