Tavily

OpenClaw can use Tavily in two ways:

as the web_search provider
as explicit plugin tools: tavily_search and tavily_extract

Tavily is a search API designed for AI applications, returning structured results optimized for LLM consumption. It supports configurable search depth, topic filtering, domain filters, AI-generated answer summaries, and content extraction from URLs (including JavaScript-rendered pages).

Get an API key

Create a Tavily account at tavily.com.
Generate an API key in the dashboard.
Store it in config or set TAVILY_API_KEY in the gateway environment.

Configure Tavily search

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      tavily: {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            apiKey: "tvly-...", // optional if TAVILY_API_KEY is set
            baseUrl: "https://api.tavily.com",
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "tavily",
      },
    },
  },
}

Notes:

Choosing Tavily in onboarding or openclaw configure --section web enables the bundled Tavily plugin automatically.
Store Tavily config under plugins.entries.tavily.config.webSearch.*.
web_search with Tavily supports query and count (up to 20 results).
For Tavily-specific controls like search_depth, topic, include_answer, or domain filters, use tavily_search.

Tavily plugin tools

`tavily_search`

Use this when you want Tavily-specific search controls instead of generic web_search.

Parameter	Description
`query`	Search query string (keep under 400 characters)
`search_depth`	`basic` (default, balanced) or `advanced` (highest relevance, slower)
`topic`	`general` (default), `news` (real-time updates), or `finance`
`max_results`	Number of results, 1-20 (default: 5)
`include_answer`	Include an AI-generated answer summary (default: false)
`time_range`	Filter by recency: `day`, `week`, `month`, or `year`
`include_domains`	Array of domains to restrict results to
`exclude_domains`	Array of domains to exclude from results

Search depth:

Depth	Speed	Relevance	Best for
`basic`	Faster	High	General-purpose queries (default)
`advanced`	Slower	Highest	Precision, specific facts, research

`tavily_extract`

Use this to extract clean content from one or more URLs. Handles JavaScript-rendered pages and supports query-focused chunking for targeted extraction.

Parameter	Description
`urls`	Array of URLs to extract (1-20 per request)
`query`	Rerank extracted chunks by relevance to this query
`extract_depth`	`basic` (default, fast) or `advanced` (for JS-heavy pages)
`chunks_per_source`	Chunks per URL, 1-5 (requires `query`)
`include_images`	Include image URLs in results (default: false)

Extract depth:

Depth	When to use
`basic`	Simple pages - try this first
`advanced`	JS-rendered SPAs, dynamic content, tables

Tips:

Max 20 URLs per request. Batch larger lists into multiple calls.
Use query + chunks_per_source to get only relevant content instead of full pages.
Try basic first; fall back to advanced if content is missing or incomplete.

Choosing the right tool

Need	Tool
Quick web search, no special options	`web_search`
Search with depth, topic, AI answers	`tavily_search`
Extract content from specific URLs	`tavily_extract`

Web Search overview -- all providers and auto-detection
Firecrawl -- search + scraping with content extraction
Exa Search -- neural search with content extraction