# Search Strategies

> Search strategy guidelines — tool selection, fallback chains, query optimization, and parallel search orchestration. Use when choosing which search tools to use, handling tool failures, or optimizing search queries.

- Skill: `agents-store/search-strategies` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add agents-store/search-strategies`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/agents-store/search-strategies/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Research & Search
- Author: agents-store (https://skillmd.com/u/agents-store)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/agents-store/search-strategies

---


# Search Strategies

Search strategies, provider selection, and query optimization. All calls use `~~capability` — on error, automatically try the next provider (see CONNECTORS.md for fallback chains).

## When to Use Each Provider

### Exa
- Semantic meaning-based search (not keyword matching)
- Find similar content
- Filter by category (company, research_paper, news)
- Code and technical context search

### Perplexity
- Factual questions (market size, dates, definitions)
- AI-synthesized answer with citations
- Quick fact-checking

### Jina
- Multiple queries at once (~~batch_search)
- Reading URLs (~~scrape — primary)
- Scientific papers (arXiv, SSRN)
- Deduplication and relevance ranking
- Query expansion

### Firecrawl
- JS-heavy pages (with waitFor)
- Crawling entire sites (~~crawl)
- Structured data extraction (~~extract with JSON schema)
- Screenshots and browser sessions

## Exhaustive Discovery Protocol

**CRITICAL**: When searching for a specific product, project, brand, or tool by name — ALWAYS run this protocol BEFORE concluding "not found".

### Step 1: Direct URL Probing

Try reading the project's likely homepage across ALL common domain zones:

```
For query "{Name}":
1. ~~scrape("https://{name}.com")
2. ~~scrape("https://{name}.ai")       ← CRITICAL for AI projects
3. ~~scrape("https://{name}.dev")
4. ~~scrape("https://{name}.io")
5. ~~scrape("https://{name}.app")
6. ~~scrape("https://{name}.org")
7. ~~scrape("https://{name}.co")
8. ~~scrape("https://{name}.sh")       ← for CLI tools

Run ALL. Most will fail — that's expected.
Even ONE success gives you the real homepage.
```

### Step 2: Platform-Specific Checks

```
GitHub:
- ~~scrape("https://github.com/{name}")
- ~~scrape("https://github.com/{name}/{name}")
- ~~search("{name} site:github.com")

Package registries:
- ~~scrape("https://www.npmjs.com/package/{name}")
- ~~scrape("https://pypi.org/project/{name}/")

Documentation:
- ~~scrape("https://docs.{name}.ai")
- ~~scrape("https://docs.{name}.dev")
```

### Step 3: Search Variations

```
1. Exact match:     "{Name}" (in quotes)
2. With context:    "{Name}" + domain keywords
3. Hyphenated:      "{name-name}" or "{name_name}"
4. GitHub search:   "{name}" site:github.com
5. Discussions:     "{name}" site:reddit.com OR site:news.ycombinator.com
```

### Step 4: Escalation

If Steps 1-3 all return empty:
```
1. ~~search("What is {Name}? {context}") — try Perplexity first
2. ~~search("{Name}") — try other providers
3. ~~search("{Name} twitter OR linkedin OR discord")
```

**NEVER conclude "not found" until ALL 4 steps are exhausted.**

### Minimum Discovery Attempts

| Query Type | Minimum Probes Before "Not Found" |
|-----------|----------------------------------|
| Product/Project name | 8 domain probes + 3 GitHub + 2 registry + 5 search = 18 |
| Company name | 5 domain probes + 3 search + Perplexity + Crunchbase = 10 |
| Person name | 3 search queries + Perplexity + LinkedIn search = 5 |
| Generic topic | 3 search queries across providers = 3 |

## Query Optimization

### Expanding queries
```
1. Use query expansion utility to get related terms
2. Form 3-7 queries from different angles:
   - Direct: "RAG frameworks comparison"
   - Synonym: "retrieval augmented generation tools"
   - Comparison: "RAG vs fine-tuning"
   - Expert: "best RAG framework expert review"
   - Data: "RAG benchmark results 2026"
```

### Parallel Search Strategy
```
1. Expand query → related terms
2. Form 3-5 queries from different angles
3. ~~batch_search(queries) → batch results
4. Rank by relevance → top results
5. Deduplicate → remove duplicates
```

## Domain-Specific Search

Target specific domains based on research type:

| Research Type | Domain Strategy |
|--------------|----------------|
| Technical / Code | ~~search + `site:github.com` OR `site:stackoverflow.com` OR `site:dev.to` |
| Business / Market | ~~search + `site:crunchbase.com` OR `site:linkedin.com` OR `site:bloomberg.com` |
| Academic / Papers | ~~academic_search (arXiv, SSRN) |
| News / Trends | ~~search + date filter (last 3-6 months) + `site:techcrunch.com` OR `site:reuters.com` |
| Product / Company | Exhaustive Discovery Protocol (domain probes + GitHub + registries) |

Combine domain filtering with general search for broader coverage. Never rely on domain filtering alone.

## Exa Semantic Search

Exa provides meaning-based search (not keyword matching). Use category filters for targeted discovery:

| Category | What it finds | When to use |
|----------|--------------|-------------|
| `company` | Company profiles, about pages, team info | Person/Company Lookup |
| `research_paper` | Academic papers, studies, reports | Market Research, Technical Audit |
| `news` | News articles, press releases | News & Trends |
| (no filter) | Everything — semantic matching by meaning | Topic Deep Dive, general search |

**Exa type modes:**
- `auto` — balanced (default, recommended)
- `fast` — quick results, less semantic depth

**Exa date filtering:**
- `start_published_date` — filter to recent content (e.g., "2025-06-01")
- Combine with category for targeted fresh results

**When Exa shines:**
- Finding conceptually similar content (not just keyword matches)
- Discovering competitors and alternatives
- Finding company/product information with structured context

## Error Handling

| Error | Action |
|-------|--------|
| Provider error | Try next provider in fallback chain |
| Empty results | Broaden query, try different provider |
| Rate limited | Try alternative provider immediately |
| Timeout | Try lighter alternative (map instead of crawl) |
| Invalid URL | Check URL, try ~~scrape with next provider |
| Content blocked | Try provider with proxy/stealth support |