name: web-search
description: Reference for choosing the right web search tool. Not user-invocable — use as internal guidance when performing searches.
user_invocable: false

Web Search Tool Selection Guide

Reference for choosing the optimal search tool based on use case. Updated 2026-01-30.

Calling Convention

Claude Code (native MCP):

mcp__perplexity__perplexity_search

OpenClaw (via mcporter):

mcporter call perplexity.perplexity_search query="..."

Config: ~/clawd/config/mcporter.json (imported from Claude Code)

Available Tools

Use Case Recommendations

AI News

1. Quick overview: WebSearch — returns synthesized summary with key trends
2. Deep dive: mcp__perplexity__perplexity_search — rich excerpts, analysis
3. Avoid: Tavily (returns press releases), Brave News (mixed unrelated results)

Job Search

1. Overview: WebSearch — finds job boards, synthesizes listings
2. Regional search: mcp__serper__google_search with gl parameter (e.g., gl: "hk")
3. LinkedIn extraction: mcp__exa__web_search_exa or mcp__tavily__tavily-search

Code & Documentation

1. Primary: mcp__exa__get_code_context_exa — optimized for APIs, libraries, SDKs
2. Backup: mcp__perplexity__perplexity_search

Deep Research

1. Primary: mcp__perplexity__perplexity_research — comprehensive with citations
2. Reasoning: mcp__perplexity__perplexity_reason — for complex analysis

General Web Search

1. Default: WebSearch (built-in) — fast, good summaries
2. Google-specific: mcp__serper__google_search
3. Alternative index: mcp__brave-search__brave_web_search

Tool Details

web_search (Built-in)

• Best all-around for quick answers
• Returns synthesized summaries, not just links
• Good formatting with key points extracted

Perplexity (MCP)

# OpenClaw
mcporter call perplexity.perplexity_search query="..."
mcporter call perplexity.perplexity_ask userContent="..."

# Claude Code
mcp__perplexity__perplexity_search
mcp__perplexity__perplexity_ask

• Excellent for AI news — detailed excerpts with analysis

Serper (MCP)

# OpenClaw
mcporter call serper.search query="..." num=10
mcporter call serper.search query="..." gl=hk hl=zh  # Regional

# Claude Code
mcp__serper__google_search
mcp__serper__scrape

• Google search via API
• Supports regional targeting: gl: "hk", gl: "us"
• Language: hl: "en", hl: "zh"
• Clean structured JSON output

Exa (MCP)

# OpenClaw
mcporter call exa.web_search_exa query="..." numResults=5 type=deep
mcporter call exa.get_code_context_exa query="React hooks"
mcporter call exa.company_research_exa companyName="Anthropic"

# Claude Code
mcp__exa__web_search_exa
mcp__exa__get_code_context_exa

• Semantic search, good for finding similar content
• get_code_context_exa is excellent for programming queries
• Returns full text snippets

Brave (MCP)

# OpenClaw
mcporter call brave-search.brave_web_search query="..."
mcporter call brave-search.brave_news_search query="..."
mcporter call brave-search.brave_video_search query="..."

# Claude Code
mcp__brave-search__brave_web_search
mcp__brave-search__brave_news_search
mcp__brave-search__brave_video_search

• Alternative to Google index
• Video search is useful
• News search can return unrelated results — use with caution

Tavily (MCP)

# OpenClaw
mcporter call tavily.tavily-search query="..."
mcporter call tavily.tavily-extract urls='["https://..."]'

# Claude Code
mcp__tavily__tavily-search
mcp__tavily__tavily-extract
mcp__tavily__tavily-crawl

• tavily-extract good for scraping specific URLs
• tavily-crawl for site mapping
• News search is weak (returns press releases)

Quality Rankings (2026-01-21)

For AI News

1. WebSearch ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. Perplexity ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. Serper ⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. Exa ⭐⭐⭐⭐
5. Brave News ⭐⭐⭐
6. Tavily ⭐⭐

For Job Search

1. WebSearch ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. Serper ⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. Exa ⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. Tavily ⭐⭐⭐⭐
5. Perplexity ⭐⭐⭐
6. Brave ⭐⭐⭐

WeChat Articles (mp.weixin.qq.com)

See the dedicated wechat-article skill for full workflow.

Quick reference:
- Primary: wechat.imagenie.us API (only short URLs: /s/ABC123)
- Fallback: Mirror sites (163.com, zhihu.com, csdn.net)
- Direct access fails: WebFetch, Serper, Jina, Claude in Chrome all get CAPTCHA blocked

Removed Tools

• Google Search (direct API) — Removed 2026-01-21. "Custom Search JSON API not enabled" error. Serper provides same Google results.

Notes

• For Terry's use cases (AI news, job search), core tools are: WebSearch + Perplexity + Serper
• Exa worth keeping for code context
• Brave and Tavily are somewhat redundant but kept for specialized features (video search, crawling)