brave-search

name	brave-search
description	Web search and content extraction via Brave Search API. Use for searching documentation, facts, or any web content. Lightweight, no browser required.

Brave Search

Web search and content extraction using the official Brave Search API. No browser required.

Setup

Requires a Brave Search API account with a free subscription. A credit card is required to create the free subscription (you won't be charged).

1. Create an account at https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/register
2. Create a "Free AI" subscription
3. Create an API key for the subscription
4. Add to your shell profile (~/.profile or ~/.zprofile for zsh):

   export BRAVE_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
   

5. Install dependencies (run once):

   cd <base-dir>/scripts   # base-dir shown at the bottom of this skill
   npm install
   

Search

node <base-dir>/scripts/search.js "query"                         # Basic search (5 results)
node <base-dir>/scripts/search.js "query" -n 10                   # More results (max 20)
node <base-dir>/scripts/search.js "query" --content               # Include page content as markdown
node <base-dir>/scripts/search.js "query" --freshness pw          # Results from last week
node <base-dir>/scripts/search.js "query" --freshness 2024-01-01to2024-06-30  # Date range
node <base-dir>/scripts/search.js "query" --country DE            # Results from Germany
node <base-dir>/scripts/search.js "query" -n 3 --content          # Combined options

Options

• -n <num> - Number of results (default: 5, max: 20)
• --content - Fetch and include page content as markdown
• --country <code> - Two-letter country code (default: US)
• --freshness <period> - Filter by time:
  • pd - Past day (24 hours)
  • pw - Past week
  • pm - Past month
  • py - Past year
  • YYYY-MM-DDtoYYYY-MM-DD - Custom date range

Extract Page Content

node <base-dir>/scripts/content.js https://example.com/article

Fetches a URL and extracts readable content as markdown.

Output Format

--- Result 1 ---
Title: Page Title
Link: https://example.com/page
Age: 2 days ago
Snippet: Description from search results
Content: (if --content flag used)
  Markdown content extracted from the page...

--- Result 2 ---
...

When to Use

• Searching for documentation or API references
• Looking up facts or current information
• Fetching content from specific URLs
• Any task requiring web search without interactive browsing

Gotchas

• {baseDir} is not substituted by OpenCode. Construct the full path using the "Base directory" value injected at the bottom of this skill.
• The "Free AI" subscription requires a credit card despite being free. This surprises users during setup — guide them through it if they hesitate.
• --content fetches and parses each result URL — it's significantly slower than a plain search. Don't use it when snippets are sufficient.
• API keys are per-subscription, not per-account. If auth returns 401, verify the key belongs to the correct subscription type ("Free AI", not "Data for Search").