Web Search

Web Search (SerpAPI)

Use this skill when you need to search the web for information. SerpAPI provides Google search results as structured JSON.

Usage

When you need to search the web, run this Python script with your query:

import urllib.request
import urllib.parse
import json
import os

def search(query, num_results=5):
    """Search the web using SerpAPI (Google)."""
    api_key = os.environ.get("SERPAPI_KEY", "")
    if not api_key:
        return {"error": "SERPAPI_KEY not set in environment"}
    
    params = urllib.parse.urlencode({
        "q": query,
        "api_key": api_key,
        "engine": "google",
        "num": num_results
    })
    
    url = f"https://serpapi.com/search.json?{params}"
    
    try:
        req = urllib.request.Request(url)
        with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=15) as resp:
            data = json.loads(resp.read().decode())
        
        results = []
        for item in data.get("organic_results", [])[:num_results]:
            results.append({
                "title": item.get("title", ""),
                "link": item.get("link", ""),
                "snippet": item.get("snippet", "")
            })
        
        return {"query": query, "results": results}
    except Exception as e:
        return {"error": str(e)}

# Example: search("Alberta Rule 13.18 case law")

When to Use

• Research tasks (legal case law, technical documentation, etc.)
• Fact-checking and verification
• Finding current information
• When browsing with headless Chrome would be too slow

Fallback

If SerpAPI is unavailable or quota exceeded, fall back to using the headless Chrome browser to search Google directly.

Environment Variable

The API key is available as SERPAPI_KEY in your environment (set via AGENT_LLM_SERPAPI_KEY GitHub secret).