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Introduction

OpenClaw is an open-source, self-hosted gateway that connects messaging apps — WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, iMessage, and more — to AI agents. You run a single Gateway process on your own machine or server, and it becomes the bridge between your chat apps and an always-available AI assistant. Tavily is available in OpenClaw as both a web search provider and a dedicated plugin, giving your agents real-time web search and content extraction capabilities across every connected channel. Whether a user asks a question on WhatsApp or shares a link in Telegram, the agent can search the web and extract page content to provide accurate, up-to-date answers.
OpenClaw onboarding with Tavily as the web search provider

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How to set up Tavily with OpenClaw

Go to the Tavily Dashboard to obtain your API key. Sign up for free if you don’t have an account.
You can configure Tavily using the interactive CLI or by editing your config file directly.Option 1: Interactive CLIRun the onboarding wizard and select Tavily when prompted for a search provider:
openclaw configure --section web
Option 2: Manual configurationAdd the following to your ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:
{
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "tavily": {
        "enabled": true,
        "config": {
          "webSearch": {
            "apiKey": "tvly-YOUR_API_KEY"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "tools": {
    "web": {
      "search": {
        "provider": "tavily"
      }
    }
  }
}
Option 3: Environment variableSet the TAVILY_API_KEY environment variable, or add it to ~/.openclaw/.env:
export TAVILY_API_KEY="tvly-YOUR_API_KEY"
If TAVILY_API_KEY is set and no other search provider key is configured, OpenClaw will auto-detect and select Tavily automatically.
Once configured, your agents can use Tavily across all connected channels. Open the Control UI or send a message from any connected chat app:
openclaw dashboard
OpenClaw supports Tavily in two ways: web_search uses Tavily as the default web provider for simple searches, while Tavily-native tools like tavily_search and tavily_extract expose advanced controls such as topic selection, domain filters, search depth, and URL extraction.

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Search modes in OpenClaw

Once Tavily is configured, OpenClaw can use it in two ways. If Tavily is set as your web search provider, OpenClaw’s built-in web_search tool routes searches through Tavily. Use this when:
  • You want a simple search interface
  • Your agent only needs a query and result count
  • You want Tavily to power the default OpenClaw web search flow

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web_search parameters

ParameterDescription
querySearch query
countNumber of results to return

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2. Tavily-native tools for advanced controls

Use Tavily-native tools when you need Tavily-specific capabilities beyond the generic web_search interface.
ToolUse when you need
tavily_searchSearch depth, topic filtering, domain includes/excludes, recency filters, or AI-generated answers
tavily_extractClean extraction from one or more URLs

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tavily_search parameters

ParameterDescription
querySearch query (keep under 400 characters)
search_depthbasic (default, fast) or advanced (highest relevance)
topicgeneral (default), news, or finance
max_resultsNumber of results, 1–20 (default: 5)
include_answerInclude an AI-generated answer summary
time_rangeFilter by recency: day, week, month, or year
include_domainsArray of domains to restrict results to
exclude_domainsArray of domains to exclude

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tavily_extract parameters

ParameterDescription
urlsArray of URLs to extract (1–20 per request)
queryRerank extracted chunks by relevance to this query
extract_depthbasic (default) or advanced (for JS-heavy pages)
chunks_per_sourceChunks per URL, 1–5 (requires query)
include_imagesInclude image URLs in results

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Use cases

Leverage Tavily through OpenClaw to enhance your AI assistant across every messaging channel:
  • Research on the go — Ask your agent on WhatsApp to research a topic and get a summarized answer with sources
  • Link analysis — Share a URL in Telegram and have the agent extract and summarize its content
  • News monitoring — Use tavily_search with topic: "news" and time_range: "day" to set up heartbeat alerts and get daily updates via your preferred channels
  • Competitive intelligence — Run domain-filtered searches from any channel to track competitor activity
  • Content curation — Gather and organize information from multiple sources for reports or newsletters

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Learn more