Search the web, encyclopedia, academic, and code sources through one interface with automatic provider selection and a fallback chain. Use when you need broad or batched search, query autocomplete (suggest), query expansion (expand), ranked passages from the top pages (deep), or a multi-variant research compile that deep-reads each variant (research). Do NOT use for a URL you already have (use infobroker_fetch_page), for high-stakes claim verification (use infobroker_verify_claims), for stored-report recall (use infobroker_manage_kb search), or for academic citations (use infobroker_get_citations). Caches results in the local knowledge base, enforces per-provider rate limits, and needs no API key for the free providers. Returns a JSON envelope prefixed [OK] or [ERROR] with status, provider, results, and meta.

Fetch a URL and extract clean content via a renderer (Jina Reader by default, with native-HTTP, Wikipedia, Internet Archive, arXiv, and Stack Exchange renderers). Use when you have a URL and need readable text, want to ask the page a question, need the page's last-updated date (detect_date), a bounded same-origin crawl (crawl), or structured metadata (extract). Do NOT use for a general topic search (use infobroker_search_web) or for claim verification across sources (use infobroker_verify_claims). Parameter interactions: question switches the response from the whole page to passages ranked against it, sized by passage_size and capped by max_passages; crawl recursively fetches same-origin pages up to config caps; max_length caps the characters returned (default 50000); extract adds JSON-LD, OpenGraph, and microdata alongside the content; renderer selects the extraction backend — jina needs no API key and native_fetch is the fallback when Jina is throttled. Makes external HTTP calls, truncates very long pages, and needs no API key. Fetched pages are auto-indexed into the knowledge base unless the content policy flags them (see manage_kb), in which case flag mode returns them without storage and block mode refuses them. Returns a JSON envelope prefixed [OK] or [ERROR] with status, provider, results, and meta.

Inspect configured search providers: list their state, run a live health check, or report build and spec identity. Use when searches return empty or slow results and you want provider status, quota, or latency, or when choosing which backend to trust. Do NOT use to search (use infobroker_search_web) or to read a page (use infobroker_fetch_page). Read-only: it reports state and never modifies configuration, providers, or stored data. Action semantics: list snapshots provider state locally; health runs a live outbound probe against the provider named in provider (external calls subject to that provider's rate limits and availability, so it can be slow); spec reports build and spec identity locally. status only filters list; provider is required for the health action. Returns a JSON envelope prefixed [OK] or [ERROR] with status, provider, and results.

Run a truth-finding loop that searches across providers, reconciles claims across independent sources, and returns confidence-scored findings with per-claim source attribution. Use when a claim is high-stakes or contested and you need agreement, contradiction, and gaps surfaced with confidence scores. Do NOT use for simple lookups or broad search (use infobroker_search_web) or for citation formatting (use infobroker_get_citations). max_iterations bounds the search-refinement passes and per-provider rate limits apply; the loop recalls prior findings from the knowledge base and indexes its findings back into it. Parameter semantics: query should state the claim plainly rather than as a question; priority routes the corroboration pool by intent (speed, quality, privacy, free_only); providers restricts the pool to the given slugs, and omitting it uses the full dispatch chain; confidence_threshold is the bar for a finding to be reported confirmed. Returns a JSON envelope prefixed [OK] or [ERROR].

Manage the local knowledge base: search cached content, ingest text or URLs, list/get/delete entries, view stats, and manage at-rest encryption. Use when you need to archive a generated report (ingest with source_type 'report' and save_to 'kb'), revisit stored content, or manage encryption keys. Do NOT use for fresh external search (use infobroker_search_web) or to fetch a new page (use infobroker_fetch_page). The delete action is destructive and cannot be undone; a lost encryption key makes the store unrecoverable by design. Parameter semantics: action selects the operation; query for search, text or url for ingest, source_url for get/delete, operation with key_file for the encryption sub-actions; save_to defaults to 'kb', format to 'markdown', max_results to 8; last_updated is auto-detected from fetched URLs when omitted. Responses carry an [OK] or [ERROR] JSON envelope: search/list/get return matching entries, stats returns counts, and delete reports the chunks removed.

Re-read the configuration file and apply provider, rate-limit, and knowledge-base changes without restarting; active connections are preserved. Use when you have edited config.json or config.local.json and want the changes applied immediately. Do NOT use to inspect configuration or provider state (use infobroker_inspect_providers). The tool takes no arguments: the configuration source is fixed at startup (INFOBROKER_CONFIG, merged with config.local.json), and this call simply re-reads it from disk. If the new configuration is invalid, the previous configuration stays active and an error is returned. Returns a JSON envelope prefixed [OK] or [ERROR].

Return academic references for a query as BibTeX citations with title, authors, year, venue, and URL. Use when scholarly writing needs a reference list. Do NOT use for general web search (use infobroker_search_web) or for verifying a contested claim (use infobroker_verify_claims). Operates without an API key when at least one scholarly source is reachable; when every scholarly source is unreachable it returns an [ERROR] envelope with remediation, and queries respect each provider's rate limits. Parameter semantics: query should name the topic in natural language; max_results bounds the reference list (1–30, default 8) — larger values take longer and span more sources. Returns a JSON envelope prefixed [OK] or [ERROR].