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), and optional in-process analysis of the returned results (analyze: topics, entities, clusters, timeline). 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. fresh: true skips KB recall and searches external 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; native-HTTP, Wikipedia, Internet Archive, arXiv, and Stack Exchange alternatives). Use when you have a URL and need readable text, passages ranked against a question, or the page's last-updated date. Do NOT use for topic search (use infobroker_search_web) or cross-source claim verification (use infobroker_verify_claims). question returns passages ranked against it, sized by passage_size and capped by max_passages; crawl bounds the same-origin crawl to config caps; extract adds JSON-LD, OpenGraph, and microdata; renderer selects the backend, and native_fetch is the keyless fallback when Jina is throttled or anti-bot challenged. max_length truncates the returned text only; a truncated page is written in full to a temp file. Makes external HTTP calls and needs no API key. A fresh knowledge-base copy is returned before an outbound fetch when available. Fetched pages auto-index into the knowledge base unless the content policy flags them (see infobroker_manage_kb): flag mode returns without storage, block mode refuses. Unreachable URLs return an [ERROR] envelope with remediation; success returns an [OK] envelope 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 never modifies configuration, providers, or stored data. list snapshots provider state (including each provider's derived privacy posture) and status filters it; health runs a live outbound probe against provider (required for the health action; subject to that provider's rate limits, so it can be slow); spec reports build and spec identity plus local state health (config drift, backend capabilities, update status). Returns an [OK] or [ERROR] JSON envelope with status, provider, and results.

Verify a contested claim against independent sources and return confidence-scored findings. 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 citation formatting (use infobroker_get_citations). The loop recalls prior findings from the knowledge base, then searches providers and writes findings back; max_iterations bounds the refinement passes and per-provider rate limits apply. query states the claim plainly; priority routes the pool by intent (speed, quality, privacy, free_only); providers restricts the pool and omitting it uses the full dispatch chain; confidence_threshold sets the bar for confirmation, and findings below it are reported unverified. Returns an [OK] or [ERROR] envelope listing confirmed, contested, and unverified findings with per-source claims and confidence scores.

Manage the local knowledge base: search cached content, ingest text or URLs, list/get/delete entries, view stats, read persisted claim records, 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/url plus title and collection for ingest, source_url for get/delete, and operation with key_file for the encryption sub-actions; source_type and freshness_tier tag an ingest and filter search/list; save_to defaults to 'kb', format to 'markdown', max_results to 8; last_updated is auto-detected from fetched URLs when omitted; receipt attaches a claim-to-source manifest to a report ingest and verify_report rechecks it offline. Responses carry an [OK] or [ERROR] envelope: search/list/get return entries, stats returns counts, 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, or when passing patch to change configuration programmatically. Do NOT use to inspect configuration or provider state (use infobroker_inspect_providers). patch deep-merges a partial config into the user layer (config.local.json), rejecting unknown top-level keys, backing up the previous layer, and validating the merged result before writing; migrate true backs up and applies registered user-layer migrations before reloading. The call re-reads the startup configuration source and reports any user-layer schema drift. If the new configuration is invalid, the previous configuration stays active and an error is returned. Returns an [OK] or [ERROR] JSON envelope.

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 contested-claim verification (use infobroker_verify_claims). query is a natural-language topic; max_results sets the reference count, and larger values take longer and span more sources. Needs no API key when at least one scholarly source is reachable; if every source fails it returns an [ERROR] envelope with remediation, and queries respect per-provider rate limits. Returns an [OK] or [ERROR] JSON envelope.