| name | web-search |
| description | Use when performing web searches, extracting content from URLs, or researching topics requiring up-to-date information. Triggers on: "search", "look up", "find out", "what's the latest", "extract from URL", "fetch this page", "research", "check online". |
Web Search
Use web_search for research and page extraction. Powered by OpenAI web search (Bing-backed): search + extraction + summarization in one call.
Key Insight
The query is a prompt to an LLM with web access. Write instructions, not bare keywords.
✗ "Snowflake pricing"
✓ "List all pricing tiers from https://snowflake.com/pricing in a table with features"
Parameters
search_context_size: low — quick factssearch_context_size: medium — general research (default)search_context_size: high — URL extraction, deep analysis
Use high whenever a specific URL is in the query.
Query Patterns
URL extraction — read a specific page and structure the output:
"Extract all items from https://example.com/page and list each with details in a table"
Structured research — request comparison tables, bullet summaries:
"Compare {A} vs {B} vs {C} covering pricing, features, and target audience"
Search operators — "exact phrase", site:domain.com, AND/OR, -exclude:
site:reddit.com "nextjs" vs "remix" experience
"{company}" AND ("funding" OR "revenue") 2025 2026
Translation — read non-English pages:
"Translate and summarize: https://example.co.jp/news/"
API endpoints — read JSON responses:
"Describe the JSON structure of https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}"
Strengths
- Bypasses bot protection (Reddit, G2, Gartner) via Bing's index
- Extracts structured data (pricing, jobs, reviews, changelogs)
- Reads and translates any language
- Supports search operators (
site:, AND/OR, "quoted")
Limitations
- No verbatim full-text — summarizes copyrighted content instead of reproducing it
- 24-48h recency lag — not suitable for real-time monitoring
- No PDF internals —
filetype:pdf is unreliable
- No auth pages — cannot access login-required content
- Paywalls — reads public portions only
Workarounds for Limitations
When web_search falls short, suggest these alternatives to the user:
- Real-time monitoring → RSS feeds (many sites expose
/feed or /rss)
- Raw HTML / interactive pages → Playwright (headless browser; click, scroll, screenshot)
- Full-text extraction → Playwright to fetch raw HTML, then parse locally
Examples
Example: Extract page content
Input: "What jobs are open at Company X?"
Action: "List all job openings from https://company-x.com/careers/ with title and location" (high)
Example: Research with multiple angles
Input: "Research Company X's market position"
Action: Run in parallel:
"Company X market position analyst reports 2026" (medium)"Extract key metrics from https://company-x.com/about" (high)site:reddit.com "Company X" opinions experience (medium)
Example: Translate foreign page
Input: "What does this Japanese press release say?"
Action: "Translate to English and summarize: https://example.co.jp/press/" (high)
