Web tools

OpenClaw ships two lightweight web tools:

web_search — Search the web via Brave Search API (default) or Perplexity Sonar (direct or via OpenRouter).
web_fetch — HTTP fetch + readable extraction (HTML → markdown/text).

These are not browser automation. For JS-heavy sites or logins, use the Browser tool.

How it works

web_search calls your configured provider and returns results.
- Brave (default): returns structured results (title, URL, snippet).
- Perplexity: returns AI-synthesized answers with citations from real-time web search.
Results are cached by query for 15 minutes (configurable).
web_fetch does a plain HTTP GET and extracts readable content (HTML → markdown/text). It does not execute JavaScript.
web_fetch is enabled by default (unless explicitly disabled).

Choosing a search provider

Provider	Pros	Cons	API Key
Brave (default)	Fast, structured results, free tier	Traditional search results	`BRAVE_API_KEY`
Perplexity	AI-synthesized answers, citations, real-time	Requires Perplexity or OpenRouter access	`OPENROUTER_API_KEY` or `PERPLEXITY_API_KEY`

See Brave Search setup and Perplexity Sonar for provider-specific details.

Set the provider in config:

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "brave", // or "perplexity"
      },
    },
  },
}

Example: switch to Perplexity Sonar (direct API):

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "perplexity",
        perplexity: {
          apiKey: "pplx-...",
          baseUrl: "https://api.perplexity.ai",
          model: "perplexity/sonar-pro",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Getting a Brave API key

Create a Brave Search API account at https://brave.com/search/api/
In the dashboard, choose the Data for Search plan (not “Data for AI”) and generate an API key.
Run openclaw configure --section web to store the key in config (recommended), or set BRAVE_API_KEY in your environment.

Brave provides a free tier plus paid plans; check the Brave API portal for the current limits and pricing.

Where to set the key (recommended)

Recommended: run openclaw configure --section web. It stores the key in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under tools.web.search.apiKey.

Environment alternative: set BRAVE_API_KEY in the Gateway process environment. For a gateway install, put it in ~/.openclaw/.env (or your service environment). See Env vars.

Using Perplexity (direct or via OpenRouter)

Perplexity Sonar models have built-in web search capabilities and return AI-synthesized answers with citations. You can use them via OpenRouter (no credit card required - supports crypto/prepaid).

Getting an OpenRouter API key

Create an account at https://openrouter.ai/
Add credits (supports crypto, prepaid, or credit card)
Generate an API key in your account settings

Setting up Perplexity search

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        enabled: true,
        provider: "perplexity",
        perplexity: {
          // API key (optional if OPENROUTER_API_KEY or PERPLEXITY_API_KEY is set)
          apiKey: "sk-or-v1-...",
          // Base URL (key-aware default if omitted)
          baseUrl: "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
          // Model (defaults to perplexity/sonar-pro)
          model: "perplexity/sonar-pro",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Environment alternative: set OPENROUTER_API_KEY or PERPLEXITY_API_KEY in the Gateway environment. For a gateway install, put it in ~/.openclaw/.env.

If no base URL is set, OpenClaw chooses a default based on the API key source:

PERPLEXITY_API_KEY or pplx-... → https://api.perplexity.ai
OPENROUTER_API_KEY or sk-or-... → https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
Unknown key formats → OpenRouter (safe fallback)

Available Perplexity models

Model	Description	Best for
`perplexity/sonar`	Fast Q&A with web search	Quick lookups
`perplexity/sonar-pro` (default)	Multi-step reasoning with web search	Complex questions
`perplexity/sonar-reasoning-pro`	Chain-of-thought analysis	Deep research

web_search

Search the web using your configured provider.

Requirements

tools.web.search.enabled must not be false (default: enabled)
API key for your chosen provider:
- Brave: BRAVE_API_KEY or tools.web.search.apiKey
- Perplexity: OPENROUTER_API_KEY, PERPLEXITY_API_KEY, or tools.web.search.perplexity.apiKey

Config

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        enabled: true,
        apiKey: "BRAVE_API_KEY_HERE", // optional if BRAVE_API_KEY is set
        maxResults: 5,
        timeoutSeconds: 30,
        cacheTtlMinutes: 15,
      },
    },
  },
}

Tool parameters

query (required)
count (1–10; default from config)
country (optional): 2-letter country code for region-specific results (e.g., "DE", "US", "ALL"). If omitted, Brave chooses its default region.
search_lang (optional): ISO language code for search results (e.g., "de", "en", "fr")
ui_lang (optional): ISO language code for UI elements
freshness (optional): filter by discovery time
- Brave: pd, pw, pm, py, or YYYY-MM-DDtoYYYY-MM-DD
- Perplexity: pd, pw, pm, py

Examples:

// German-specific search
await web_search({
  query: "TV online schauen",
  count: 10,
  country: "DE",
  search_lang: "de",
});

// French search with French UI
await web_search({
  query: "actualités",
  country: "FR",
  search_lang: "fr",
  ui_lang: "fr",
});

// Recent results (past week)
await web_search({
  query: "TMBG interview",
  freshness: "pw",
});

web_fetch

Fetch a URL and extract readable content.

web_fetch requirements

tools.web.fetch.enabled must not be false (default: enabled)
Optional Firecrawl fallback: set tools.web.fetch.firecrawl.apiKey or FIRECRAWL_API_KEY.

web_fetch config

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      fetch: {
        enabled: true,
        maxChars: 50000,
        maxCharsCap: 50000,
        maxResponseBytes: 2000000,
        timeoutSeconds: 30,
        cacheTtlMinutes: 15,
        maxRedirects: 3,
        userAgent: "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 14_7_2) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
        readability: true,
        firecrawl: {
          enabled: true,
          apiKey: "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY_HERE", // optional if FIRECRAWL_API_KEY is set
          baseUrl: "https://api.firecrawl.dev",
          onlyMainContent: true,
          maxAgeMs: 86400000, // ms (1 day)
          timeoutSeconds: 60,
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

web_fetch tool parameters

url (required, http/https only)
extractMode (markdown | text)
maxChars (truncate long pages)

Notes:

web_fetch uses Readability (main-content extraction) first, then Firecrawl (if configured). If both fail, the tool returns an error.
Firecrawl requests use bot-circumvention mode and cache results by default.
web_fetch sends a Chrome-like User-Agent and Accept-Language by default; override userAgent if needed.
web_fetch blocks private/internal hostnames and re-checks redirects (limit with maxRedirects).
maxChars is clamped to tools.web.fetch.maxCharsCap.
web_fetch caps the downloaded response body size to tools.web.fetch.maxResponseBytes before parsing; oversized responses are truncated and include a warning.
web_fetch is best-effort extraction; some sites will need the browser tool.
See Firecrawl for key setup and service details.
Responses are cached (default 15 minutes) to reduce repeated fetches.
If you use tool profiles/allowlists, add web_search/web_fetch or group:web.
If the Brave key is missing, web_search returns a short setup hint with a docs link.