| name | tavily-search |
| description | Web search using Tavily's LLM-optimized API. Use when the user asks to search the web, look up information online, find recent news, or research a topic. NOT for: searching local files, code lookup, or when the answer is purely based on existing knowledge. |
Tavily Search
Search the web and get relevant results optimized for LLM consumption.
Authentication
Requires the TAVILY_API_KEY environment variable. Get your API key at https://tavily.com.
Set it in your shell profile (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc, or Windows ~/.bash_profile):
export TAVILY_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
Usage
Run the search script located in this skill's scripts/ directory. Resolve SCRIPT relative to this SKILL.md file.
node "$SCRIPT_DIR/scripts/search.mjs" "your query"
node "$SCRIPT_DIR/scripts/search.mjs" "your query" -n 10
node "$SCRIPT_DIR/scripts/search.mjs" "your query" --depth advanced
node "$SCRIPT_DIR/scripts/search.mjs" "your query" --topic news
node "$SCRIPT_DIR/scripts/search.mjs" "your query" --time-range week
node "$SCRIPT_DIR/scripts/search.mjs" "your query" --include-domains docs.python.org
node "$SCRIPT_DIR/scripts/search.mjs" "your query" --json
Options
| Option | Description | Default |
|---|
-n <count> | Number of results (1-20) | 10 |
--depth <mode> | ultra-fast, fast, basic, advanced | basic |
--topic <topic> | general or news | general |
--time-range <range> | day, week, month, year | - |
--include-domains <domains> | Comma-separated domains to include | - |
--exclude-domains <domains> | Comma-separated domains to exclude | - |
--raw-content | Include full page content | false |
--json | Output raw JSON | false |
Tips
- Keep queries concise — think search query, not prompt
- Use
--depth advanced when precision matters
- Use
--topic news for current events
- Use
--time-range to filter by recency
- Use
--include-domains to focus on trusted sources
