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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tavily.com/llms.txt

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Tavily on LibreChat

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Introduction

LibreChat is an open-source chat platform that supports multiple AI providers, agents, and a configurable web search system. Tavily integrates with LibreChat in three ways:
  • Web search provider for the built-in Web Search feature.
  • Scraper / extract provider for fetching page contents alongside search.
  • Built-in agent tool (Tavily Search) inside the LibreChat Agent Builder.
This lets your LibreChat conversations and custom agents access real-time, agent-optimized web data without any custom integration code.

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Prerequisites

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Web search in LibreChat

LibreChat’s Web Search feature uses a pluggable pipeline of search provider → scraper → reranker. Tavily can power both the search and scrape stages.

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Configure Tavily as a provider

1

Add your Tavily API key

Set the environment variable in your LibreChat .env file:
TAVILY_API_KEY=your_tavily_api_key
LibreChat picks this up automatically for both the search and extract roles.
2

(Optional) Configure via librechat.yaml

If you prefer to manage configuration centrally, reference the environment variable in your librechat.yaml:
webSearch:
  tavilyApiKey: "${TAVILY_API_KEY}"
Only reference environment variable names in YAML - for best practices, never embed your API key directly.
3

Enable web search in a conversation

Restart LibreChat, then ensure Web Search is enabled in the settings. LibreChat will route queries through Tavily Search, fetch the most relevant pages with Tavily Extract, and feed the results back to the model.

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Why use Tavily for both stages

Tavily can serve as the search provider and the scraper provider simultaneously, so you can run the full web search pipeline with a single API key:
StageTavily capability
SearchAgent-optimized results with configurable search depth, time-based filtering, and domain include/exclude.
ExtractClean page content with configurable extract depth, plus image and favicon extraction.
Pair Tavily with a supported reranker in librechat.yaml if you want an additional ranking stage on top of Tavily’s results.

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Tavily as a built-in agent tool

LibreChat’s Agent Builder ships with Tavily Search as a built-in tool, so any custom agent you build can call Tavily directly.
1

Create or open an agent

Select Agents from the endpoint menu, then open the Agent Builder in the side panel. Set the agent’s name, avatar, model, and instructions.
2

Enable Tavily Search

In the agent’s tool list, toggle on Tavily Search. If TAVILY_API_KEY is not set in the environment, LibreChat will prompt for the key in the UI the first time the tool is used.
3

Save and test

Save the agent and start a conversation. The agent will now call Tavily whenever it needs current web information.

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Best practices

  • Use one Tavily key end-to-end — the same key powers Web Search and the built-in agent tool, which keeps usage and billing in one place.
  • Combine search + extract — let Tavily search for sources and extract the most relevant pages before sending content to the model, which keeps context windows tight.
  • Pick the right surface — use Web Search for ad-hoc chat queries and the built-in Tavily Search tool for simple agents. You can also connect the Tavily MCP server when an agent needs the full research workflow.

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Resources