add-skill-brave-search

name	add-skill-brave-search
description	Add Brave Search API access to NanoTars agent containers. Enables web search for research, current events, and fact-checking. Guides through free API key setup. Triggers on "add brave search", "brave search", "web search setup", "add search".

Add Brave Search

Configures Brave Search API access for agent containers, enabling web search for research, current events, and fact-checking.

Preflight

Before installing, verify NanoTars is set up:

[ -d node_modules ] && echo "DEPS: ok" || echo "DEPS: missing"
docker image inspect nanoclaw-agent:latest &>/dev/null && echo "IMAGE: ok" || echo "IMAGE: not built"
if grep -q "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY\|CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN" .env 2>/dev/null || [ -f "$HOME/.claude/.credentials.json" ]; then echo "AUTH: ok"; else echo "AUTH: missing"; fi

If any check fails, tell the user to run /nanotars-setup first and stop.

Prerequisites

• A Brave Search API key (free tier: 2,000 queries/month)

Install

1. Copy plugin files:

   cp -r ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/files/ plugins/brave-search/
   

2. Plugin Configuration: By default this plugin is available to all groups and channel types. To restrict access, edit plugins/brave-search/plugin.json and set:

   • "groups" to specific group folder names (e.g., ["main"]) instead of ["*"]
   • "channels" to specific channel types (e.g., ["whatsapp"]) instead of ["*"]

   Ask the user if they want to restrict access. Most users will keep the defaults.

3. Get a free API key:

   • Go to https://brave.com/search/api/
   • Click "Get Started" and create an account
   • Subscribe to the Free plan (2,000 queries/month)
   • Copy your API key from the dashboard

4. Add to .env:

   echo 'BRAVE_API_KEY=YOUR_KEY_HERE' >> .env
   

5. Rebuild and restart:

   npm run build
   nanotars restart  # or launchctl on macOS
   

Verify

Test the API key:

source .env
curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search?q=test&count=1" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: $BRAVE_API_KEY" | python3 -c "
import sys, json
r = json.load(sys.stdin)
if 'web' in r and r['web'].get('results'):
    print(f\"OK - got {len(r['web']['results'])} result(s)\")
else:
    print(f\"FAILED - {r.get('message', r.get('type', 'unknown error'))}\")
"

Per-group overrides: If a specific group needs a different Brave API key, add BRAVE_API_KEY=... to groups/{folder}/.env. See /create-skill-plugin for details.

Remove

1. rm -rf plugins/brave-search/
   

2. Remove BRAVE_API_KEY from .env
3. Rebuild and restart