Web Search (general)
searchGeneral-purpose web grounding via parallel.ai (Vercel AI Gateway). Returns synthesized text excerpts plus structured sources[] with direct URLs.
Use for: topic landscapes, entity-deep teardowns, recency-sharp queries, named-vendor lookups, general fact retrieval.
NOT for: Reddit/X/community discourse → use search_community. NOT for: numerical effect sizes or methodology-heavy fact-check → use search_research.
The agent decomposes the brief into sub-questions BEFORE calling — one focused query per call. Optional after_date (ISO YYYY-MM-DD) for fast-decay topics. Optional max_results 1-20, default 10.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| query | Yes | Search query. Phrase as a natural-language question or precise topic description. The research agent has already done question decomposition — this is one focused query, not a multi-question batch. | |
| after_date | No | ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD). Restrict results to content published after this date. Use for fast-decay topics (model capabilities, platform algo changes, ad-format performance) per research.foundation §5. Omit for slow-decay topics (buyer psychology, established frameworks). | |
| max_results | No | Maximum number of results to return. Default 10. Higher counts return more sources but cost more in tokens — keep at 10 for general use. |