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Web Search Tavily

  • 1.1k installs
  • 133 repo stars
  • Updated February 24, 2026
  • jwynia/agent-skills

web-search-tavily provides documented workflows for Search the web using Tavily API for high-quality, AI-optimized results with advanced filtering options. Use when you need structured search results, domain filt

About

The web-search-tavily skill search the web using Tavily API for high-quality AI-optimized results with advanced filtering options Use when you need structured search results domain filtering relevance scores or AI-generated answer summaries Requires TAVILY_API_KEY Keywords tavily advanced search filtered search domain filtering relevance scoring Web Search Tavily API Search the web using Tavily's AI-optimized search API Returns high-quality structured results with relevance scores and optional AI-generated summaries Note This skill requires a Tavily API key For basic web search using the agent's built-in capability see web-search 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 to verify facts or find authoritative sources 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

  • You need to find current information not in your training data
  • The user asks about recent events, news, or updates
  • You need to verify facts or find authoritative sources
  • Research requires real-time web data
  • Keywords mentioned: search, look up, find online, current, latest, news

Web Search Tavily by the numbers

  • 1,119 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • +2 installs in the week ending Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion tracking)
  • Ranked #281 of 2,064 Data Science & ML skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Security screen: MEDIUM risk (skills.sh audit)
  • Data as of Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
At a glance

web-search-tavily capabilities & compatibility

Capabilities
you need to find current information not in your · the user asks about recent events, news, or upda · you need to verify facts or find authoritative s · research requires real time web data · keywords mentioned: search, look up, find online
Use cases
documentation · planning
From the docs

What web-search-tavily says it does

# Web Search (Tavily API) Search the web using Tavily's AI-optimized search API.
SKILL.md
Returns high-quality, structured results with relevance scores and optional AI-generated summaries.
SKILL.md
npx skills add https://github.com/jwynia/agent-skills --skill web-search-tavily

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Listed on Skillselion
Installs1.1k
repo stars133
Security audit2 / 3 scanners passed
Last updatedFebruary 24, 2026
Repositoryjwynia/agent-skills

How do I use web-search-tavily for the task described in its SKILL.md triggers?

Search the web using Tavily API for high-quality, AI-optimized results with advanced filtering options. Use when you need structured search results, domain filtering, relevance scores, or AI-generate.

Who is it for?

Teams invoking web-search-tavily when the user request matches documented triggers and prerequisites.

Skip if: Skip when cached docs are missing, the request is a negative trigger, or another sibling skill owns the workflow.

When should I use this skill?

Search the web using Tavily API for high-quality, AI-optimized results with advanced filtering options. Use when you need structured search results, domain filtering, relevance scores, or AI-generated answer summaries. R

What you get

Step-by-step guidance grounded in web-search-tavily documentation and reference files.

  • search result JSON
  • optional synthesized answer text

By the numbers

  • Supports basic and advanced (--depth advanced) Tavily search modes
  • Scopes Deno network access to api.tavily.com only

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Web Search (Tavily API)

Search the web using Tavily's AI-optimized search API. Returns high-quality, structured results with relevance scores and optional AI-generated summaries.

Note: This skill requires a Tavily API key. For basic web search using the agent's built-in capability, see web-search.

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 to verify facts or find authoritative sources
  • 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)

Prerequisites

Before using this skill, ensure:

  • TAVILY_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 Tavily API key at: https://tavily.com

Quick Start

Run a simple search:

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

Example with AI-generated answer:

deno run --allow-env --allow-net=api.tavily.com scripts/search.ts "React 19 new features" --answer

Script Usage

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

Options

OptionDescriptionDefault
--answerInclude AI-generated answer summaryfalse
--depth <level>Search depth: basic or advancedbasic
--results <n>Number of results to return5
--topic <type>Topic type: general, news, or financegeneral
--time <range>Time filter: day, week, month, or yearnone
--include <domains>Only include these domains (comma-separated)none
--exclude <domains>Exclude these domains (comma-separated)none
--rawInclude raw page content in resultsfalse
--jsonOutput as JSON (for programmatic use)false
--helpShow help message-

Search Parameters

Topic Types

  • general (default): Broad web search across all content types
  • news: Prioritizes news articles and current events
  • finance: Focuses on financial information and market data

Search Depth

  • basic (default): Fast search, good for most queries
  • advanced: Deeper search with more comprehensive results (slower, higher API cost)

Time Range

Filter results by recency:

  • day: Last 24 hours
  • week: Last 7 days
  • month: Last 30 days
  • year: Last 365 days

Domain Filtering

Control which sites appear in results:

# Only search documentation sites
scripts/search.ts "React hooks" --include docs.react.dev,developer.mozilla.org

# Exclude social media
scripts/search.ts "AI news" --exclude twitter.com,reddit.com

Output Format

Human-Readable Output (default)

🔍 Search: "React 19 new features"

Found 5 results in 234ms

📝 AI Answer:
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
React 19 introduces several new features including...
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

1. React 19 Release Notes
   https://react.dev/blog/2024/04/25/react-19
   React 19 is now available on npm! This release includes...
   Score: 0.987

2. What's New in React 19
   https://example.com/react-19-features
   A comprehensive overview of React 19's new features...
   Score: 0.945

JSON Output (--json)

{
  "query": "React 19 new features",
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "React 19 Release Notes",
      "url": "https://react.dev/blog/2024/04/25/react-19",
      "content": "React 19 is now available on npm...",
      "score": 0.987,
      "published_date": "2024-04-25"
    }
  ],
  "answer": "React 19 introduces several new features...",
  "response_time": 234
}

Result Fields

FieldTypeDescription
titlestringPage title
urlstringSource URL
contentstringRelevant excerpt from the page
scorenumberRelevance score (0-1, higher is better)
published_datestringPublication date (if available)
raw_contentstringFull page content (only with --raw)

Examples

Example 1: Current Events Search

Scenario: Find recent news about a technology topic

scripts/search.ts "OpenAI GPT-5 announcement" --topic news --time week --answer

Expected output: Recent news articles about GPT-5, with an AI-generated summary

Example 2: Documentation Lookup

Scenario: Find specific technical documentation

scripts/search.ts "Deno deploy edge functions tutorial" --depth advanced --results 10

Expected output: Comprehensive results from documentation and tutorial sites

Example 3: Fact Verification

Scenario: Verify a specific claim or statistic

scripts/search.ts "world population 2024" --include un.org,worldbank.org,census.gov --json

Expected output: JSON results from authoritative sources for programmatic verification

Example 4: Financial Research

Scenario: Research market information

scripts/search.ts "NVIDIA stock analysis 2024" --topic finance --answer

Expected output: Financial analysis and market data with AI summary

Common Issues and Solutions

Issue: "TAVILY_API_KEY environment variable is not set"

Symptoms: Script exits immediately with API key error

Solution: 1. Get an API key from https://tavily.com 2. Set the environment variable:

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

3. Or run with the variable inline:

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

Issue: "Invalid Tavily 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 Tavily account is active

Issue: "Tavily API rate limit exceeded"

Symptoms: 429 error response

Solution: 1. Wait a moment and retry 2. Reduce request frequency 3. Consider upgrading your Tavily plan for higher limits

Issue: No results returned

Symptoms: Empty results array

Solution: 1. Try broader search terms 2. Remove domain filters that might be too restrictive 3. Check if the topic exists online 4. Try --depth advanced for harder queries

Limitations

This skill has the following limitations:

  • Requires active internet connection
  • API rate limits apply based on your Tavily plan
  • Results depend on Tavily's index coverage
  • Cannot access paywalled or login-required content
  • Real-time accuracy depends on Tavily's crawling frequency
  • Maximum query length and result count have API limits

Related Skills

  • research-workflow: For comprehensive research projects that use multiple searches with planning and synthesis

Related skills

How it compares

Choose web-search-tavily when you want a minimal Deno CLI around Tavily rather than a full MCP server or custom HTTP client.

FAQ

What does web-search-tavily do?

Search the web using Tavily API for high-quality, AI-optimized results with advanced filtering options. Use when you need structured search results, domain filtering, relevance scores, or AI-generated answer summaries. R

When should I use web-search-tavily?

Search the web using Tavily API for high-quality, AI-optimized results with advanced filtering options. Use when you need structured search results, domain filtering, relevance scores, or AI-generated answer summaries. R

What are common prerequisites?

--- name: web-search-tavily description: "Search the web using Tavily API for high-quality, AI-optimized results with advanced filtering options.

Is Web Search Tavily safe to install?

skills.sh reports 2 of 3 security scanners passed. Review the Security Audits panel on this page before installing in production.

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