howells Web research
Use Exa and Tavily as complementary research providers, then write one synthesis yourself. Firecrawl is not part of this skill.
Authentication
Inject EXA_API_KEY and TAVILY_API_KEY from the user's configured secret manager or environment into the request subprocess. Only the selected provider's key is required for a call. This skill contains no account inventory, vault names or credential-file paths.
Use scripts/request to call either API without exposing a key in diagnostics or command arguments. Never copy keys into a project .env or substitute another search provider because authentication failed. Report which provider is unavailable and any resulting coverage gap. Credential loading must be non-interactive and bounded by the host's timeout; do not initiate login as a repair step.
Pass a complete JSON request body on standard input:
printf '%s' '{"query":"current timber reuse standards","type":"auto","numResults":5}' | scripts/request exa search
Research
Read references/providers.md before choosing endpoints. Use the cheapest operation that can answer the question:
- Split the question into the factual claims or subquestions that need evidence.
- Run Exa and Tavily discovery in parallel when independent coverage will improve confidence. Do not duplicate calls mechanically when one provider already returned the authoritative source.
- Retrieve the underlying pages needed to support the answer. Search snippets and provider-written summaries are leads, not evidence.
- Prefer primary sources, deduplicate URLs and repeated stories, and investigate material disagreement between providers.
- Produce one direct synthesis with links beside the claims they support. Preserve uncertainty and source disagreement; do not paste two provider reports beside each other.
Use deep or agentic research only when ordinary search and extraction cannot answer the question. Provider-generated research reports remain inputs to the synthesis, not the final answer.
The bundled helpers require Python 3. scripts/read-credential.py requires a nonempty, single-line environment credential before any request. Inject secrets before invoking the helper; it never reads a credential file or initiates authentication.