Web Search (Brave Search API)

Search the web using Brave's Search API. Returns web results with descriptions, optional extra snippets, and support for country/language targeting.

Note: This skill requires a Brave Search API key. For basic web search using the agent's built-in capability, see web-search. For AI-optimized results with relevance scores, see web-search-tavily.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• You need to find current information not in your training data
• The user asks about recent events, news, or updates
• You need localized search results for a specific country or language
• You want a privacy-respecting search alternative
• Research requires real-time web data
• Keywords mentioned: search, look up, find online, current, latest, news

Do NOT use this skill when:

• Information is already in your knowledge base and doesn't need verification
• The user asks about historical facts that don't change
• You're working with local files or code (use other tools)
• A more specific skill exists for the task (e.g., documentation lookup)
• You need AI-generated answer summaries (use web-search-tavily instead)

Prerequisites

Before using this skill, ensure:

• BRAVE_API_KEY environment variable is set with a valid API key
• Deno is installed (for running the search script)
• Internet access is available

Get a Brave Search API key at: https://brave.com/search/api/

Quick Start

Run a simple search:

deno run --allow-env --allow-net=api.search.brave.com scripts/search.ts "your search query"

Example with freshness filter:

deno run --allow-env --allow-net=api.search.brave.com scripts/search.ts "React 19 new features" --freshness pw

Script Usage

deno run --allow-env --allow-net=api.search.brave.com scripts/search.ts [options] "query"

Options

Option	Description	Default
--results <n>	Number of results to return (max 20)	5
--freshness <range>	Time filter: pd, pw, pm, or py	none
--country <code>	Country code for localized results (e.g., US, GB, DE)	none
--lang <code>	Search language (e.g., en, fr, de)	none
--safesearch <level>	Safe search: off, moderate, or strict	moderate
--extra-snippets	Include additional content snippets	false
--offset <n>	Pagination offset	0
--json	Output as JSON (for programmatic use)	false
--help	Show help message	-

Search Parameters

Freshness Values

Filter results by recency:

• pd: Past day (last 24 hours)
• pw: Past week (last 7 days)
• pm: Past month (last 30 days)
• py: Past year (last 365 days)

Country Codes

Use standard 2-character country codes to get localized results:

• US (United States), GB (United Kingdom), DE (Germany), FR (France), JP (Japan), etc.

Safe Search Levels

• off: No filtering
• moderate (default): Filters explicit content
• strict: Strictest filtering

Output Format

Human-Readable Output (default)

Search: "React 19 new features"

Found 5 results in 189ms

1. React 19 Release Notes
   https://react.dev/blog/2024/04/25/react-19
   React 19 is now available on npm! This release includes...
   Age: 2 months ago

2. What's New in React 19
   https://example.com/react-19-features
   A comprehensive overview of React 19's new features...

JSON Output (--json)

{
  "query": "React 19 new features",
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "React 19 Release Notes",
      "url": "https://react.dev/blog/2024/04/25/react-19",
      "description": "React 19 is now available on npm...",
      "age": "2 months ago",
      "language": "en",
      "family_friendly": true
    }
  ],
  "response_time": 189,
  "total_results": 1250000
}

Result Fields

Field	Type	Description
title	string	Page title
url	string	Source URL
description	string	Relevant excerpt from the page
extra_snippets	string[]	Additional content snippets (only with --extra-snippets)
age	string	How old the result is (e.g., "2 hours ago")
language	string	Language of the result
family_friendly	boolean	Whether the result is family-friendly

Examples

Example 1: Current Events Search

Scenario: Find recent news about a technology topic

scripts/search.ts "OpenAI GPT-5 announcement" --freshness pw --results 10

Expected output: Recent web results about GPT-5 from the past week

Example 2: Documentation Lookup

Scenario: Find specific technical documentation

scripts/search.ts "Deno deploy edge functions tutorial" --results 10 --extra-snippets

Expected output: Comprehensive results with extra snippets from documentation and tutorial sites

Example 3: Localized Search

Scenario: Find results targeted to a specific country and language

scripts/search.ts "aktuelle Nachrichten" --country DE --lang de --freshness pd

Expected output: German-language results from Germany from the past day

Example 4: Filtered Search with JSON Output

Scenario: Get structured results with strict safe search

scripts/search.ts "machine learning tutorials" --safesearch strict --extra-snippets --json

Expected output: JSON results with extra snippets, filtered for safe content

Common Issues and Solutions

Issue: "BRAVE_API_KEY environment variable is not set"

Symptoms: Script exits immediately with API key error

Solution:

1. Get an API key from https://brave.com/search/api/
2. Set the environment variable:

   export BRAVE_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
   

3. Or run with the variable inline:

   BRAVE_API_KEY="your-key" deno run --allow-env --allow-net=api.search.brave.com scripts/search.ts "query"
   

Issue: "Invalid Brave Search API key"

Symptoms: 401 authentication error

Solution:

1. Verify your API key is correct (no extra spaces)
2. Check if your API key has expired
3. Verify your Brave Search API subscription is active

Issue: "Brave Search API rate limit exceeded"

Symptoms: 429 error response

Solution:

1. Wait a moment and retry
2. Reduce request frequency
3. Consider upgrading your Brave Search API plan for higher limits

Issue: No results returned

Symptoms: Empty results array

Solution:

1. Try broader search terms
2. Remove country or language filters that might be too restrictive
3. Remove or widen the freshness filter
4. Check if the topic exists online

Limitations

This skill has the following limitations:

• Requires active internet connection
• API rate limits apply based on your Brave Search API plan
• Results depend on Brave's index coverage
• Cannot access paywalled or login-required content
• No built-in AI-generated answer summaries (use web-search-tavily for that)
• Maximum 20 results per request
• Extra snippets require a paid API plan

Related Skills

• web-search: Basic web search using the agent's built-in capability
• web-search-tavily: AI-optimized search with relevance scores and answer summaries
• research-workflow: For comprehensive research projects that use multiple searches with planning and synthesis