Setup Guide
OpenClaw Tavily Search Setup
Tavily is an AI-optimized web search API that gives your OpenClaw agent high-quality, structured search results. This guide covers how to get a Tavily API key, install the tavily-search skill, and configure it for your AI agent.
What Is Tavily?
Tavily is a search API designed specifically for AI agents and LLMs. Unlike traditional search engines that return links and snippets, Tavily returns clean, structured content that AI agents can immediately use — full article text, extracted answers, and organized data.
The tavily-search skill is one of the most popular skills on ClawHub, used by thousands of OpenClaw agents for web research, fact-checking, and real-time information retrieval.
Why Use Tavily with OpenClaw?
OpenClaw has a built-in web search capability, so why add Tavily? Here are the key differences:
| Tavily Search | Built-in Web Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Result quality | AI-optimized, clean content | Raw HTML / page text |
| Answer extraction | Yes — direct answers | Agent must extract from text |
| Speed | Fast (single API call) | Slower (fetch + parse each page) |
| Structured data | Yes — JSON response | Unstructured text |
| Cost | Free tier: 1,000 searches/mo | Free (included in OpenClaw) |
| API key required | Yes | No |
For casual use, the built-in web search works fine. For agents that do heavy research, fact-checking, or need high-quality structured answers, Tavily is a significant upgrade.
Step 1: Get a Tavily API Key
- Go to tavily.com and create an account
- Navigate to the API section in your dashboard
- Copy your API key (starts with
tvly-)
Tavily offers a free tier with 1,000 searches per month, which is enough for personal AI agent use. Paid plans offer more searches and advanced features.
Step 2: Install the Tavily Search Skill
Install the tavily-search skill from ClawHub:
/skill install @anthropic/tavily-searchThe skill will prompt you for your Tavily API key during installation. Enter the key you copied from the Tavily dashboard.
Alternatively, you can configure the API key manually in your openclaw.json:
{
"skills": {
"tavily-search": {
"apiKey": "tvly-your-api-key-here"
}
}
}Step 3: Test It
After installation, test the Tavily search skill by asking your agent a question that requires web search:
- “Search the web for the latest news about AI”
- “What is the current weather in Tokyo?”
- “Find the latest release notes for Next.js”
Your agent will use Tavily to search the web and return clean, structured results. You can tell Tavily is being used (instead of built-in search) because the results will be more structured and often include a direct answer at the top.
Advanced Configuration
Search Depth
Tavily supports two search depth levels:
- basic (default) — Fast search, suitable for most queries
- advanced — Deeper search with more sources, takes longer but provides more comprehensive results
Include/Exclude Domains
You can configure Tavily to only search specific domains or exclude certain sites. This is useful when you want your agent to only reference trusted sources.
Tavily vs. Other Search Skills
ClawHub offers several web search skills. Here is how Tavily compares:
- Tavily — Best all-around AI search. Clean results, answer extraction, free tier. Most popular choice.
- Brave Search API — Privacy-focused search. Good results but less AI-optimized than Tavily.
- Firecrawl — Better for web scraping and data extraction from specific URLs. Not a search engine.
- Built-in web search — No API key needed, works out of the box. Good for basic lookups.
Troubleshooting
Agent Is Not Using Tavily
If your agent is still using built-in search after installing Tavily:
- Verify the skill is installed:
/skill list - Check the API key is configured correctly
- Try explicitly asking: “Use Tavily to search for...”
API Key Errors
If you see authentication errors, verify your Tavily API key:
- The key should start with
tvly- - Check for extra spaces or newlines in the key
- Verify your Tavily account is active and the key is not expired
- Check your monthly search quota on the Tavily dashboard
Use Tavily on OpenClaw Launch
On OpenClaw Launch, the Tavily search skill is available as a one-click install from the Dashboard. Enter your Tavily API key in the configurator, and it's automatically configured for your instance. No JSON editing needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Tavily search skill for OpenClaw?
The tavily-search skill connects your OpenClaw AI agent to Tavily's AI-optimized web search API. It provides cleaner, more structured search results than the built-in web search, including direct answer extraction and JSON-formatted responses.
Is Tavily free to use with OpenClaw?
Tavily offers a free tier with 1,000 searches per month, which is sufficient for personal AI agent use. The tavily-search ClawHub skill itself is free to install. You only need a Tavily API key (free to create at tavily.com).
How do I install tavily-search on OpenClaw?
Run /skill install @anthropic/tavily-search in your OpenClaw chat. The skill will prompt for your Tavily API key. After entering it, Tavily search is immediately available to your agent.
Can I use Tavily and built-in web search together?
Yes. When both are available, your OpenClaw agent will typically prefer Tavily for general web searches due to its higher-quality results. The built-in web search is still used for fetching specific URLs directly.
Related Guides
- OpenClaw ClawHub Guide — Browse and install skills from the marketplace
- Best OpenClaw Skills in 2026 — Curated list of top skills
- OpenClaw Browser Automation — Interactive web browsing beyond search
- OpenClaw MCP Guide — Understanding the Model Context Protocol