| name | search-and-extract |
| description | Web search and content extraction skill spanning Tavily, Exa, Ollama Cloud, Jina AI, Parallel Web Systems, Firecrawl, and local SearXNG. Use when the user asks to search the web, fetch a page, verify facts, gather citations, or extract article text for LLM consumption.
|
Search and Extract
A single-file CLI for web search and URL content extraction across multiple
services. Output is plain text (\n---\n separated) intended for LLM consumption.
Quick Reference
cd skills/search-and-extract/scripts
uv run search-extract.py search --tavily "latest rust release"
uv run search-extract.py search --exa "quantum computing"
uv run search-extract.py search --ollama "open source LLMs"
uv run search-extract.py search --jina "climate news"
uv run search-extract.py search --searxng "news today"
uv run search-extract.py search "latest AI news"
uv run search-extract.py extract --tavily https://example.com
uv run search-extract.py extract --exa https://example.com
uv run search-extract.py extract --ollama https://example.com
uv run search-extract.py extract --jina https://example.com
uv run search-extract.py extract https://example.com
Service selection
Pick a backend by passing exactly one --<service> flag. If no service flag is
given, the CLI auto-selects the first available service (in the order below)
that is enabled and has its required API key set.
| Priority | Service | search | extract | Required key |
|---|
| 1 | tavily | yes | yes | TAVILY_API_KEY |
| 2 | exa | yes | yes | EXA_API_KEY |
| 3 | ollama | yes | yes | OLLAMA_API_KEY |
| 4 | jina | yes | yes | key optional |
| 5 | searxng | yes | no | none (local server) |
| 6 | parallel | yes | yes | PARALLEL_API_KEY |
| 7 | firecrawl | yes | yes | key optional |
Passing more than one --<service> flag is an error. Diagnostics (default
selection, errors) go to stderr so stdout stays clean for LLM use.
Commands
search <query> [--<service>] [--max-results N]
Search the web. <query> is positional; the backend is chosen with a
--<service> flag (default: first available). Returns up to N results
(default 10).
| Flag | Description |
|---|
--tavily | Tavily API, optional answer prepended |
--exa | Exa neural search, returns highlights |
--ollama | Ollama Cloud |
--jina | Jina AI, key optional |
--searxng | Local SearXNG instance (search only) |
--parallel | Parallel Web Systems, returns excerpts |
--firecrawl | Firecrawl, key optional |
--max-results N | Max results to return (default 10) |
extract <url> [--<service>]
Extract content from a single URL. <url> is positional; the backend is chosen
with a --<service> flag (default: first available). All backends take exactly
one URL.
| Flag | Description |
|---|
--tavily | Tavily, markdown output |
--exa | Exa, full text |
--ollama | Ollama Cloud |
--jina | Jina AI |
--parallel | Parallel Web Systems, full content |
--firecrawl | Firecrawl, markdown via scrape |
Core function signatures
Each backend is a plain function with a normalized parameter list:
| Function | Signature |
|---|
*_search | (query: str, max_results=10) |
*_extract | (url: str) |
Search functions take only the result count (max_results, default 10) beyond
the query. Extract functions take only a single url.
Environment Variables
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|
TAVILY_API_KEY | Tavily | — | API key for Tavily search/extract |
EXA_API_KEY | Exa | — | API key for Exa search/extract |
OLLAMA_API_KEY | Ollama | — | API key for Ollama Cloud |
JINA_API_KEY | Optional | — | Optional key for higher Jina rate limit |
SEARXNG_URL | SearXNG | http://localhost:8888 | Base URL of local SearXNG instance |
PARALLEL_API_KEY | Parallel | — | API key for Parallel search/extract |
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY | Optional | — | Optional key for Firecrawl rate limits |
DISABLE_TAVILY | No | — | Set 1 or true to skip Tavily |
DISABLE_EXA | No | — | Set 1 or true to skip Exa |
DISABLE_OLLAMA | No | — | Set 1 or true to skip Ollama |
DISABLE_JINA | No | — | Set 1 or true to skip Jina |
DISABLE_SEARXNG | No | — | Set 1 or true to skip SearXNG |
DISABLE_PARALLEL | No | — | Set 1 or true to skip Parallel |
DISABLE_FIRECRAWL | No | — | Set 1 or true to skip Firecrawl |
A service counts as available for default selection only if it is not
disabled and has its required key set (where one is required).
Notes
- Output is plain text meant for LLM consumption; multiple results are separated by
\n---\n.
- Missing required keys or disabled services return short error strings instead of crashing.
- SearXNG only supports
search; there is no --searxng flag for extract.
- Jina AI and Firecrawl work without an API key at a lower rate limit.
- Search defaults to 10 results;
--max-results overrides it.
extract takes exactly one URL per invocation.- Run with
uv run search-extract.py ... so PEP 723 inline dependencies are resolved automatically.
