/tavily

name: tavily
description: 'AI-optimized web search via Tavily API when no URL is provided. Returns clean AI-ready snippets for current info and news. Triggers on: "search the web", "look up online", "find recent information", "web search". NOT for known URLs, use web-fetch.'
metadata:
  version: 1.1.1
  category: research
  tags: [web-search, research, real-time, ai-optimized]
  difficulty: beginner

Tavily Search

Web search and URL content extraction powered by Tavily API. Returns clean, structured results optimized for AI consumption — no HTML noise, no cookie banners, no pagination.

When to Use Tavily vs Other Tools

| Situation | Tool | Reason | | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | | Need current information on a topic | `search.mjs` | Tavily aggregates and ranks live results | | Need news from the last N days | `search.mjs --topic news --days N` | News mode filters recency | | Have a specific URL, need full text | `extract.mjs` | Extracts clean article content from URL | | Need documentation for a library | `search.mjs --deep` | Deep mode covers docs sites thoroughly | | Need a static resource already known | direct fetch or read | Skip Tavily if no live lookup needed | | Need multiple competing perspectives | `search.mjs -n 10` | Increase result count for breadth |

Scripts

Both scripts exist at `scripts/` and require `TAVILY_API_KEY` in the environment.

• `scripts/search.mjs` — query-based web search
• `scripts/extract.mjs` — full content extraction from a URL

Search

node {baseDir}/scripts/search.mjs "query"
node {baseDir}/scripts/search.mjs "query" -n 10
node {baseDir}/scripts/search.mjs "query" --deep
node {baseDir}/scripts/search.mjs "query" --topic news
node {baseDir}/scripts/search.mjs "query" --topic news --days 3

Search Options

| Option | Default | Description | | ----------------- | --------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `-n <count>` | 5 | Number of results to return (max: 20). Increase for broader coverage. | | `--deep` | off | Advanced search mode — slower but more comprehensive. Use for complex research questions, technical deep-dives, or when standard results are insufficient. | | `--topic <topic>` | `general` | `general` for standard search; `news` for current events filtered by recency. | | `--days <n>` | — | Only valid with `--topic news`. Limits results to articles published in the last n days. |

Extract Content from URL

node {baseDir}/scripts/extract.mjs "https://example.com/article"

Use when you already have a URL and need the full page content — Tavily strips navigation, ads, and boilerplate, returning structured article text.

Output Format

Search results return a JSON array. Each result contains:

[
  {
    "title": "Article or page title",
    "url": "https://source.com/path",
    "content": "Clean text snippet (AI-optimized excerpt)",
    "score": 0.92
  }
]

`score` is Tavily's relevance ranking (0–1). Higher is more relevant. When parsing results, use `content` for summarization and `url` for attribution. Do not treat `content` as the full article — use `extract.mjs` on the URL if complete text is needed.

Extract output returns a single object:

{
  "url": "https://source.com/path",
  "raw_content": "Full extracted page text..."
}

Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Resolution | | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `TAVILY_API_KEY not set` | Environment variable missing | Set `TAVILY_API_KEY` before running. Get a key at https://tavily.com | | `401 Unauthorized` | Invalid API key | Verify the key value; regenerate at Tavily dashboard if needed | | `429 Too Many Requests` | Rate limit hit | Reduce request frequency; free tier allows 1000 API credits/month | | Empty results array `[]` | No matches found | Broaden or rephrase the query; try `--deep` for niche topics | | `ETIMEDOUT` / timeout | Network or API latency | Retry once; `--deep` searches take longer (up to 30s) | | Extract returns empty content | Page blocks scrapers | Use a different source or fall back to a manual fetch approach |

Limitations

• **Rate limits**: Free tier is 1000 API credits/month. Each search costs 1 credit; `--deep` costs more.
• **Content freshness**: Results reflect Tavily's index; very recent content (last few hours) may not appear in `general` mode. Use `--topic news` for recency-sensitive queries.
• **Result quality**: Tavily optimizes for AI-readable content but cannot guarantee factual accuracy. Verify critical claims from primary sources.
• **Paywalled content**: Articles behind paywalls return only the publicly accessible excerpt.
• **Non-text content**: PDFs, images, and media pages extract poorly or not at all.
• **Language**: Best results for English queries. Other languages are supported but result qua