Tavily Web Search Skill for OpenClaw

OpenClaw Tavily Web Search Skill Overview

The Tavily Web Search skill connects OpenClaw to the Tavily Search API, an AI-optimized search engine built specifically for AI agents and LLM applications. Unlike traditional search APIs that return raw links, Tavily analyzes multiple sources and returns structured, relevant content that your OpenClaw agent can use immediately.

Tavily powers search for over 1 million developers and processes more than 100 million requests per month. It is trusted by OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain, and other leading AI platforms. With SOC 2 certification, zero data retention, and built-in prompt injection protection, it is one of the safest ways to give your agent web access.

Typical workflow:

1. Ask OpenClaw a question that requires up-to-date information.
2. The agent calls the Tavily API with an optimized query.
3. Tavily searches the web, extracts relevant content from multiple sources, and returns a structured summary with citations — all in under 2 seconds.

This skill is ideal for research tasks, fact-checking, current events lookup, and any workflow where your agent needs access to information beyond its training data. It pairs well with the Brave Search skill for privacy-focused queries and the DeepWiki skill for repository documentation research.

Prerequisites for Tavily Web Search Skill

Before installing the Tavily Web Search skill, make sure you have:

• OpenClaw installed and running (v1.0+)
• A Tavily API key — sign up at tavily.com (free tier includes 1,000 credits/month)
• clawhub CLI installed for skill management

Verify your setup:

# Check OpenClaw version
openclaw --version

# Confirm your Tavily API key is set
echo $TAVILY_API_KEY

No additional software installation is required. The skill communicates with Tavily's cloud API, so there are no local dependencies beyond OpenClaw itself.

How to Install the Tavily Web Search Skill

Install the Tavily Web Search skill with a single command:

npx clawhub@latest install tavily-web-search

To verify the installation:

clawhub list

You should see tavily-web-search in the list of installed skills.

Tavily Web Search Skill Configuration

The skill requires a Tavily API key for authentication. You can obtain a free key at app.tavily.com.

API Key Setup

# Set your Tavily API key as an environment variable
export TAVILY_API_KEY=tvly-your-api-key-here

To make this permanent, add the export line to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or equivalent).

Search Modes

The skill supports two search depths and two topic modes that you can mix depending on your needs:

| Mode | Speed | Coverage | Best For | |------|-------|----------|----------| | Basic | 1-2 seconds | Good | Quick facts, simple lookups | | Advanced | 5-10 seconds | Excellent | Complex research, comprehensive answers |

| Topic | Scope | Best For | |-------|-------|----------| | General | All-time web content | Evergreen topics, documentation, tutorials | | News | Last 7 days, news sources | Current events, breaking news, market updates |

The agent automatically selects the appropriate mode based on your query, but you can override this by specifying "do a deep search" or "search recent news" in your prompt.

Important: Never hardcode your API key in configuration files or commit it to version control. Use environment variables or a secret manager like 1Password.

Tavily Web Search Skill Usage Examples

1. Quick Fact Lookup

You: "What is the latest stable version of Next.js?"

The agent runs a basic Tavily search, extracts the version number from official sources, and returns a concise answer with a link to the Next.js release notes.

2. In-Depth Research

You: "Compare the pros and cons of server-side rendering vs static site generation for e-commerce sites."

The agent performs an advanced search, aggregates insights from multiple blog posts, documentation pages, and case studies, and returns a structured comparison with citations for each point.

3. Current Events and News

You: "What happened in the AI industry this week?"

The agent switches to news mode, searches the last 7 days, and returns a summary of the top AI news stories with links to the original articles.

4. Domain-Specific Research

You: "Search only MDN and the TypeScript docs for how to use template literal types."

The agent uses domain filtering to include only developer.mozilla.org and typescriptlang.org, ensuring results come exclusively from authoritative sources.

5. Content Extraction

You: "Extract the full content of the Tavily API pricing page and summarize the tiers."

The agent uses raw content extraction to fetch the complete page content, then produces a structured breakdown of each pricing tier with features and limits.

Security & Best Practices

Follow these guidelines when using the Tavily Web Search skill:

• Protect your API key. Store it in an environment variable or secret manager. Never share it in chat logs, commit it to Git, or expose it in client-side code.
• Treat search results as untrusted input. Web content may contain inaccurate, outdated, or manipulated information. Always verify critical facts from multiple sources before acting on them. Review the Safety Checklist for general guidance.
• Monitor your usage. The free tier provides 1,000 credits per month. Each basic search costs 1 credit, and advanced searches cost 2 credits. Check your usage at app.tavily.com to avoid unexpected overages.
• Use domain filtering for sensitive queries. When accuracy matters, restrict results to trusted domains (official documentation, government sites, established publications) using include-domain filters.
• Be mindful of rate limits. Avoid rapid-fire queries in loops. The skill handles rate limiting gracefully, but excessive requests may temporarily throttle your access.

Troubleshooting Common Errors

"Invalid API key"

Your Tavily API key is missing, malformed, or expired.

1. Verify the key is set: echo $TAVILY_API_KEY
2. Ensure it starts with tvly- — keys from Tavily always use this prefix.
3. If the key is correct but still fails, generate a new one at app.tavily.com.

"Rate limit exceeded"

You have exceeded the request limit for your plan tier.

1. Check your current usage at app.tavily.com.
2. If on the free tier, wait until the monthly reset on the 1st of the next month.
3. Consider upgrading to a paid plan for higher limits, or optimize your queries to use basic mode where advanced is not needed.

"No results found"

The query returned no matching results. This can happen with very niche or highly specific searches.

1. Broaden your search terms — remove overly specific filters.
2. If using domain filtering, ensure the target domains actually contain relevant content.
3. Try switching from news mode to general mode if the topic is not a recent event.