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 quality varies.

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