web-search-plus-mcp

web_search

Search across multiple web providers with automatic routing to find source results; returns compact sources by default, with full evidence and routing details on request.

Instructions

Source-only web search through the Web Search Plus v3 runtime. Routes across configured source-result providers. Returns compact sources by default; detail='full' includes the complete v3 evidence and routing contract.

Input Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`mode`	No	normal fast path or opt-in research mode.	normal
`count`	No	Number of results
`depth`	No	Exa depth: normal, deep multi-source search, or deep-reasoning.	normal
`query`	Yes	Search query
`detail`	No	Response detail: compact by default; full returns the complete v3 contract. Overrides the server default.
`country`	No	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country override (e.g. at, fr).
`language`	No	ISO 639-1 language override (e.g. de), or auto via config defaults.
`no_cache`	No	Bypass the search cache and fetch live results. Use for recency queries when a cached hit would be stale.
`provider`	No	Force a specific provider, or use auto-routing.	auto
`cache_ttl`	No	Search-cache TTL in seconds. Default is 3600 if omitted.
`freshness`	No	Unified recency filter alias for providers that support freshness.
`time_range`	No	Recency filter.
`search_type`	No	Search vertical. Serper and TinyFish serve news natively; other providers report unsupported metadata.	search
`quality_report`	No	Attach routing/result diagnostics.
`exclude_domains`	No	Exclude these domains.
`include_domains`	No	Restrict to these domains.
`research_time_budget`	No	Best-effort budget for research mode.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

Changed1 schema field changedv5.1.6Oct 31, 2026

addedInput schema / properties / detail

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Response detail: compact by default; full returns the complete v3 contract. Overrides the server default.",
+  "enum": [
+    "compact",
+    "full"
+  ],
+  "type": "string"
+}

Changed2 schema fields changedv4.3.1Sep 24, 2026

addedInput schema / properties / cache_ttl

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Search-cache TTL in seconds. Default is 3600 if omitted.",
+  "maximum": 86400,
+  "minimum": 1,
+  "type": "integer"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / no_cache

Added value: +{
+  "default": false,
+  "description": "Bypass the search cache and fetch live results. Use for recency queries when a cached hit would be stale.",
+  "type": "boolean"
+}

Changed1 schema field changedv4.0.2Aug 22, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / provider / enum

Previous value: -[
-  "auto",
-  "serper",
-  "serpbase",
-  "brave",
-  "tavily",
-  "querit",
-  "linkup",
-  "exa",
-  "firecrawl",
-  "parallel",
-  "you",
-  "searxng",
-  "keenable",
-  "hound",
-  "octen",
-  "tinyfish"
-]New value: +[
+  "auto",
+  "serper",
+  "serpbase",
+  "brave",
+  "tavily",
+  "querit",
+  "linkup",
+  "exa",
+  "firecrawl",
+  "parallel",
+  "you",
+  "searxng",
+  "keenable",
+  "donsetch",
+  "octen",
+  "tinyfish"
+]

Changed2 schema fields changedv3.6.0Aug 7, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / provider / enum

Previous value: -[
-  "auto",
-  "serper",
-  "serpbase",
-  "brave",
-  "tavily",
-  "querit",
-  "linkup",
-  "exa",
-  "firecrawl",
-  "parallel",
-  "you",
-  "searxng",
-  "keenable",
-  "hound",
-  "octen"
-]New value: +[
+  "auto",
+  "serper",
+  "serpbase",
+  "brave",
+  "tavily",
+  "querit",
+  "linkup",
+  "exa",
+  "firecrawl",
+  "parallel",
+  "you",
+  "searxng",
+  "keenable",
+  "hound",
+  "octen",
+  "tinyfish"
+]

changedInput schema / properties / search_type / description

Previous value: -"Search vertical. Serper serves news natively; other providers report unsupported metadata."New value: +"Search vertical. Serper and TinyFish serve news natively; other providers report unsupported metadata."

Changed1 schema field changedv3.3.1Jul 29, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / provider / enum

Previous value: -[
-  "auto",
-  "serper",
-  "serpbase",
-  "brave",
-  "tavily",
-  "querit",
-  "linkup",
-  "exa",
-  "firecrawl",
-  "parallel",
-  "you",
-  "searxng",
-  "keenable"
-]New value: +[
+  "auto",
+  "serper",
+  "serpbase",
+  "brave",
+  "tavily",
+  "querit",
+  "linkup",
+  "exa",
+  "firecrawl",
+  "parallel",
+  "you",
+  "searxng",
+  "keenable",
+  "hound",
+  "octen"
+]

Changed2 schema fields changedJul 14, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / depth / description

Previous value: -"Exa depth: normal, deep synthesis, or deep-reasoning."New value: +"Exa depth: normal, deep multi-source search, or deep-reasoning."

changedInput schema / properties / provider / enum

Previous value: -[
-  "auto",
-  "serper",
-  "serpbase",
-  "brave",
-  "tavily",
-  "querit",
-  "linkup",
-  "exa",
-  "firecrawl",
-  "parallel",
-  "perplexity",
-  "kilo-perplexity",
-  "you",
-  "searxng",
-  "keenable"
-]New value: +[
+  "auto",
+  "serper",
+  "serpbase",
+  "brave",
+  "tavily",
+  "querit",
+  "linkup",
+  "exa",
+  "firecrawl",
+  "parallel",
+  "you",
+  "searxng",
+  "keenable"
+]

Changed4 schema fields changedv0.16.0Jul 4, 2026

addedInput schema / properties / country

Added value: +{
+  "description": "ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country override (e.g. at, fr).",
+  "type": "string"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / freshness

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Unified recency filter alias for providers that support freshness.",
+  "enum": [
+    "day",
+    "week",
+    "month",
+    "year"
+  ],
+  "type": "string"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / language

Added value: +{
+  "description": "ISO 639-1 language override (e.g. de), or auto via config defaults.",
+  "type": "string"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / search_type

Added value: +{
+  "default": "search",
+  "description": "Search vertical. Serper serves news natively; other providers report unsupported metadata.",
+  "enum": [
+    "search",
+    "news"
+  ],
+  "type": "string"
+}

Changed1 schema field changedv0.13.0Jun 30, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / provider / enum

Previous value: -[
-  "auto",
-  "serper",
-  "serpbase",
-  "brave",
-  "tavily",
-  "querit",
-  "linkup",
-  "exa",
-  "firecrawl",
-  "parallel",
-  "perplexity",
-  "kilo-perplexity",
-  "you",
-  "searxng"
-]New value: +[
+  "auto",
+  "serper",
+  "serpbase",
+  "brave",
+  "tavily",
+  "querit",
+  "linkup",
+  "exa",
+  "firecrawl",
+  "parallel",
+  "perplexity",
+  "kilo-perplexity",
+  "you",
+  "searxng",
+  "keenable"
+]

Changed1 schema field changedv0.12.0Jun 22, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / provider / enum

Previous value: -[
-  "auto",
-  "serper",
-  "brave",
-  "tavily",
-  "exa",
-  "linkup",
-  "firecrawl",
-  "parallel",
-  "perplexity",
-  "kilo-perplexity",
-  "you",
-  "searxng",
-  "serpbase",
-  "querit"
-]New value: +[
+  "auto",
+  "serper",
+  "serpbase",
+  "brave",
+  "tavily",
+  "querit",
+  "linkup",
+  "exa",
+  "firecrawl",
+  "parallel",
+  "perplexity",
+  "kilo-perplexity",
+  "you",
+  "searxng"
+]

Changed1 schema field changedv0.9.0May 19, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / provider / enum

Previous value: -[
-  "auto",
-  "serper",
-  "brave",
-  "tavily",
-  "exa",
-  "linkup",
-  "firecrawl",
-  "perplexity",
-  "kilo-perplexity",
-  "you",
-  "searxng",
-  "serpbase",
-  "querit"
-]New value: +[
+  "auto",
+  "serper",
+  "brave",
+  "tavily",
+  "exa",
+  "linkup",
+  "firecrawl",
+  "parallel",
+  "perplexity",
+  "kilo-perplexity",
+  "you",
+  "searxng",
+  "serpbase",
+  "querit"
+]

Addedv0.8.0May 17, 2026
Removedv0.7.0May 15, 2026

Changed1 schema field changedv0.5.1May 14, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / provider / enum

Previous value: -[
-  "auto",
-  "serper",
-  "brave",
-  "tavily",
-  "exa",
-  "querit",
-  "linkup",
-  "firecrawl",
-  "perplexity",
-  "you",
-  "searxng"
-]New value: +[
+  "auto",
+  "serper",
+  "brave",
+  "tavily",
+  "exa",
+  "querit",
+  "linkup",
+  "firecrawl",
+  "perplexity",
+  "kilo-perplexity",
+  "you",
+  "searxng"
+]

Changed12 schema fields changedv0.2.1May 7, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / count / description

Previous value: -"Number of results (default: 5)"New value: +"Number of results"

addedInput schema / properties / count / maximum
```
Added value: +20
```
addedInput schema / properties / count / minimum
```
Added value: +1
```

addedInput schema / properties / depth

Added value: +{
+  "default": "normal",
+  "description": "Exa depth: normal, deep synthesis, or deep-reasoning.",
+  "enum": [
+    "normal",
+    "deep",
+    "deep-reasoning"
+  ],
+  "type": "string"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / exclude_domains

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Exclude these domains.",
+  "items": {
+    "type": "string"
+  },
+  "type": "array"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / include_domains

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Restrict to these domains.",
+  "items": {
+    "type": "string"
+  },
+  "type": "array"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / mode

Added value: +{
+  "default": "normal",
+  "description": "normal fast path or opt-in research mode.",
+  "enum": [
+    "normal",
+    "research"
+  ],
+  "type": "string"
+}

changedInput schema / properties / provider / description

Previous value: -"Force a specific provider (default: auto)"New value: +"Force a specific provider, or use auto-routing."

changedInput schema / properties / provider / enum

Previous value: -[
-  "auto",
-  "serper",
-  "tavily",
-  "exa"
-]New value: +[
+  "auto",
+  "serper",
+  "brave",
+  "tavily",
+  "exa",
+  "querit",
+  "linkup",
+  "firecrawl",
+  "perplexity",
+  "you",
+  "searxng"
+]

addedInput schema / properties / quality_report

Added value: +{
+  "default": false,
+  "description": "Attach routing/result diagnostics.",
+  "type": "boolean"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / research_time_budget

Added value: +{
+  "default": 55,
+  "description": "Best-effort budget for research mode.",
+  "maximum": 75,
+  "minimum": 1,
+  "type": "number"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / time_range

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Recency filter.",
+  "enum": [
+    "hour",
+    "day",
+    "week",
+    "month",
+    "year"
+  ],
+  "type": "string"
+}

First observedv1.0.0Mar 14, 2026

TDQS

B3.1/5.0

Behavior3/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

With no annotations, the description carries the full burden, and it does disclose genuinely useful behavior beyond the schema: results are 'source-only', requests are routed across configured providers, and detail='full' expands the payload. However, it omits operationally significant traits an agent needs — that research mode is a long-running (up to 75s) best-effort call, that some providers silently don't support news/freshness, and that caching is on by default with a 3600s TTL.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness4/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

Three short sentences, front-loaded with what the tool is and how output size is controlled. It loses a point because phrases like 'Web Search Plus v3 runtime' and 'v3 evidence and routing contract' are internal jargon that conveys little to a calling agent.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness2/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

This is a high-complexity tool: 17 parameters, 7 enums, multiple providers, two search modes and no output schema. The description does not describe the shape of a returned 'source', does not explain how provider auto-routing fails over or degrades, and does not address the research-mode latency tradeoff — substantial gaps given there are no annotations to lean on.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema description coverage is 100%, so the schema already documents all 17 parameters including enums, defaults and ranges; the description is not required to compensate. Its only parameter reference ('detail=full includes the complete v3 evidence') merely restates the schema text, adding no new semantics.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose4/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

States a specific verb and resource ('web search') plus a meaningful qualifier ('source-only') that signals it returns raw sources rather than a synthesized answer. It never mentions the sibling web_extract or contrasts itself with it, so sibling differentiation is left implicit — the definition of a 4 rather than a 5.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines2/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

There is no when-to-use / when-not guidance: nothing says when to prefer web_search over web_extract, when to pick mode='research' versus the default fast path, or when forcing a specific provider is warranted. The only usage-adjacent sentence describes routing rather than decision criteria.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

Deploy Server

web_search

Instructions

Input Schema

Schema Changelog

TDQS

Other Tools