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Internet Search

How to use the internet_search tool effectively — category routing, query formulation, and multi-sea

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Version: 1.0.0

Overview

How to use the internet_search tool effectively — category routing, query formulation, and multi-search strategies.

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Internet Search

Queries a self-hosted SearXNG instance aggregating multiple search engines.

Category Routing

Always set category based on the nature of the query.

Category	When to use	Engines
general	Default. Facts, how-tos, products, people, broad web.	Brave, Bing, DDG, Startpage, Qwant, Wikipedia…
news	Recent events, breaking news, anything time-sensitive.	Bing News, DDG News
academic	Research papers, studies, medical literature, preprints.	arXiv, Google Scholar, PubMed
social	Opinions, community recommendations, "what do people think about X".	Reddit

Query Formulation

Write queries as a search engine expects — keywords, not full sentences:

text

# Bad
"what is the fastest async runtime for rust"

# Good
"rust async runtime benchmarks 2025"

news: include a time anchor — "OpenAI o3 release 2025" not just "OpenAI o3"
academic: use field terminology — "transformer attention efficiency survey"
social: phrase as community search — "reddit best mechanical keyboard 2025"

SearXNG Search Syntax (in `query`)

SearXNG supports lightweight query modifiers you can embed directly into the query string:

Syntax	Meaning	Examples
! / !	Select engine(s) and/or a category. Chainable and inclusive; abbreviations are accepted.	!wp paris, !wikipedia paris, !map paris, !map !ddg !wp paris
:	Language filter	:fr !wp Wau Holland

Count

count=5 (default) — sufficient for most tasks
count=10 — comparing many options, checking consensus
count=3 — quick fact checks

Multi-Search Strategy

Fire multiple focused searches rather than one broad one:

text

# Bad: one vague search
internet_search("best way to deploy Node.js")

# Good: three targeted searches
internet_search("Node.js Docker deployment best practices 2025")
internet_search("Node.js PM2 vs Docker production", category="social")
internet_search("Node.js zero-downtime deployment strategies")

Combine general + social for factual + sentiment coverage:

text

internet_search("Bun runtime performance vs Node.js benchmarks")
internet_search("Bun runtime production experience", category="social")

When NOT to Use

Things you already know with high confidence
Stable API docs or well-known syntax — use training knowledge
Repeating a search that already answered the question

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
general for a research paper	Use category="academic"
Searching "what happened today"	Use category="news" with a specific topic
One broad search for a multi-part question	Break into 2–3 focused searches
Repeating a failed search verbatim	Rephrase with different keywords
count=20 for a simple fact	Default count=5 is almost always enough

Installation

Terminal bash


openclaw install internet-search

Copied!

💻Code Examples

"rust async runtime benchmarks 2025"

rust-async-runtime-benchmarks-2025.txt

- **news**: include a time anchor — `"OpenAI o3 release 2025"` not just `"OpenAI o3"`
- **academic**: use field terminology — `"transformer attention efficiency survey"`
- **social**: phrase as community search — `"reddit best mechanical keyboard 2025"`

## SearXNG Search Syntax (in `query`)

SearXNG supports lightweight query modifiers you can embed directly into the `query` string:

| Syntax | Meaning | Examples |
|--------|---------|----------|
| `!<engine>` / `!<category>` | Select engine(s) and/or a category. Chainable and inclusive; abbreviations are accepted. | `!wp paris`, `!wikipedia paris`, `!map paris`, `!map !ddg !wp paris` |
| `:<lang>` | Language filter | `:fr !wp Wau Holland` |


## Count

- `count=5` (default) — sufficient for most tasks
- `count=10` — comparing many options, checking consensus
- `count=3` — quick fact checks

## Multi-Search Strategy

Fire multiple focused searches rather than one broad one:

example.txt

# Bad
"what is the fastest async runtime for rust"

# Good
"rust async runtime benchmarks 2025"

example.txt

# Bad: one vague search
internet_search("best way to deploy Node.js")

# Good: three targeted searches
internet_search("Node.js Docker deployment best practices 2025")
internet_search("Node.js PM2 vs Docker production", category="social")
internet_search("Node.js zero-downtime deployment strategies")