askweb

One API for Brave, Exa, Jina, Tavily, SerpAPI, SerpBase, and SearXNG. Write your search logic once, swap the provider string, done.

If you're building an AI agent or a CLI tool that needs web search, you don't want to hardcode a single provider's API. They all return roughly the same thing, a list of URLs with titles and snippets, but the auth, endpoints, and response shapes are all different. Exa uses POST with x-api-key, Brave uses GET with X-Subscription-Token, Jina uses Bearer auth, Tavily puts the key in the request body. And so on.

askweb normalizes all of that behind a single interface. It also ships an AI SDK tool and a CLI. Search is query-to-results; read is URL-to-content.

[!WARNING] askweb is experimental. The package name, public API, provider model, CLI flags, and tool surfaces may change before the first stable release. Pin exact versions if you build on it now.

Pi extension

askweb ships with a pi extension that registers three tools and two commands. Install the package straight from GitHub:

pi install git:github.com/oritwoen/askweb

Provided tools:

• askweb - search the web with a single provider, or provider="all" to fan out across every configured/reachable provider in parallel
• askweb_read - read a URL into normalized content with a read-capable provider (currently Jina Reader)
• askweb_providers - list built-in providers, env-var configuration, and reachability status

Provided slash commands:

• /web [query] - quick search from the TUI; results are shown as a selector and the chosen URL is pasted into the editor
• /web-providers - show provider configuration and reachability status

The extension reuses the same env vars as the library (EXA_API_KEY, BRAVE_API_KEY, JINA_API_KEY, TAVILY_API_KEY, SERPAPI_API_KEY, SERPBASE_API_KEY, or a self-hosted SearXNG). Pi bundles @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent, @earendil-works/pi-tui, and typebox, so no extra installs are needed.

Install

pnpm add askweb

For the AI SDK tool (askweb/ai subpath), you also need ai and zod as peer dependencies:

pnpm add ai zod

Usage

Set your API key as an environment variable and create a provider:

import { create } from 'askweb'

// Reads EXA_API_KEY from process.env
const exa = create('exa')

const results = await exa.search('typescript runtime benchmarks', { maxResults: 5 })

for (const result of results) {
  console.log(result.title, result.url)
}

Swap the provider string, same code:

const brave = create('brave')   // reads BRAVE_API_KEY
const jina = create('jina')     // reads JINA_API_KEY
const tavily = create('tavily') // reads TAVILY_API_KEY

You can also pass the key explicitly:

const exa = create('exa', { apiKey: 'your-key-here' })

Search all providers

Query all available providers in parallel and get deduplicated results:

import { searchAll } from 'askweb'

// Detects providers from env vars, queries them in parallel
const results = await searchAll('latest node.js release')

for (const result of results) {
  console.log(`[${result.provider}]`, result.title, result.url)
}

searchAll uses Promise.allSettled internally, so if one provider fails, the others still return. Results are deduplicated by URL (normalized, UTM params stripped). When duplicates exist, the result with the higher score wins.

You can also specify which providers to query:

const results = await searchAll('query', {
  providers: ['exa', 'brave'],
  maxResults: 5,
})

Read a URL

Use readUrl when you already have a URL and want normalized page content:

import { readUrl } from 'askweb'

const page = await readUrl('https://example.com/article', {
  provider: 'jina',
  format: 'markdown',
  maxTokens: 4000,
})

console.log(page.title, page.content)

Jina read uses r.jina.ai and does not require an API key for basic reads; if JINA_API_KEY is present it is sent as Bearer auth.

AI SDK tool

The askweb/ai subpath exports ready-made tools compatible with Vercel AI SDK:

import { generateText } from 'ai'
import { readTool, searchTool } from 'askweb/ai'

const { text } = await generateText({
  model: yourModel,
  tools: { webSearch: searchTool, webRead: readTool },
  prompt: 'Find the latest TypeScript release notes',
})

searchTool accepts an optional provider parameter. Set it to "all" to query all available providers in parallel. readTool accepts a URL and reads page content with a read-capable provider:

// The AI can choose: a specific provider, or "all" for parallel search
tools: { webSearch: searchTool, webRead: readTool }
// searchTool input: { query: string, provider?: "brave" | "exa" | ... | "all", maxResults?: number }
// readTool input: { url: string, provider?: "jina", format?: "markdown" | "text" | "html" }

For searchTool, when no provider is specified, the tool auto-detects the first available one from environment variables. readTool defaults to Jina Reader.

CLI

askweb "your query"
askweb --provider brave "your query" --max-results 5
askweb search "your query" --json
askweb read https://example.com --format markdown --json
askweb providers

Command	Description
askweb <query>	Search the web using the default provider
askweb search <query>	Search the web using a provider
askweb read <url>	Read a URL into normalized content
askweb providers	List built-in providers

Flag	Description
--provider <name>	Provider to use (search default: first configured; read default: jina)
--max-results <n>	Maximum search results to return (default: 10)
--format <markdown|text|html>	Preferred read format
--max-tokens <n>	Maximum read tokens when supported
--json	Output as JSON

Providers

Provider	Env var	Auth	Free tier
Brave	BRAVE_API_KEY	Header	2k queries/mo
Exa	EXA_API_KEY	Header	1k queries/mo
Jina	JINA_API_KEY	Bearer header	Required for search; optional for read
SearXNG	-	None	Self-hosted
SerpAPI	SERPAPI_API_KEY	Query param	100 queries/mo
SerpBase	SERPBASE_API_KEY	X-API-Key header	100 searches to start
Tavily	TAVILY_API_KEY	Body	1k queries/mo

Result shape

All search providers always return { url, title, snippet }. Optional fields depend on what each provider's native API exposes — askweb passes them through without flattening:

Provider	Optional fields populated
Exa	text (full page), highlights[], summary (AI), score, publishedDate, author, image, favicon
Jina	text (content/text), publishedDate, image, metadata
Tavily	text (raw_content, full HTML/markdown), score, publishedDate
Brave	text (joined extra_snippets), favicon
SerpAPI	image (thumbnail), publishedDate, favicon, metadata.{position, source, displayedLink}
SerpBase	image (SERP thumbnail/image), publishedDate, favicon, metadata.{position, rank, searchType, requestId, elapsedMs, creditsCharged}
SearXNG	image, score, publishedDate, metadata.{engine, engines, category}

Pick the provider that fits the shape you want. Exa is closest to "AI search" (summary + highlights + full text on request). Jina uses Jina Search Foundation and can return result content plus metadata. Tavily is best when you want the raw page content. Brave/SerpAPI/SerpBase/SearXNG are classic SERP-style metadata.

SerpBase uses Google SERP endpoints. category: "images", "news", or "videos" selects the matching SerpBase endpoint; maxResults is applied client-side to the returned page.

SearXNG requires no API key. It's a self-hosted metasearch engine. By default askweb connects to http://localhost:8080. Override with baseURL:

const searx = create('searxng', { baseURL: 'https://searx.example.com' })

Errors

All providers throw the same error types:

import { AuthError, RateLimitError, HTTPError, UnknownProviderError } from 'askweb'

try {
  const results = await provider.search('query')
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof AuthError) {
    // Missing or invalid API key
  }
  if (err instanceof RateLimitError) {
    console.log(`Retry after ${err.retryAfter}s`)
  }
  if (err instanceof UnknownProviderError) {
    // Provider name not recognized
  }
}

A 401 from any provider becomes AuthError. A 429 from any provider becomes RateLimitError with a retryAfter value. Everything else is HTTPError or the base AskwebError.

For safety, HTTPError.url redacts sensitive query params and URL userinfo credentials before surfacing the URL in error messages.

Data model

Every search provider returns the same normalized type:

interface SearchResult {
  url: string
  title: string
  snippet: string
  score?: number
  publishedDate?: string
  author?: string
  image?: string
  favicon?: string
  text?: string
  highlights?: string[]
  summary?: string
  metadata?: Record<string, unknown>
}

Optional fields depend on what the provider returns. Exa provides score, text, and highlights. Jina provides result text/metadata when available. Brave provides favicon. Not all providers populate all fields.

Read results use the same naming for URL-to-content:

interface ReadResult {
  url: string
  title?: string
  description?: string
  content: string
  text?: string
  html?: string
  publishedDate?: string
  image?: string
  links?: string[]
  images?: string[]
  metadata?: Record<string, unknown>
}

Search options you can pass to .search() or searchAll:

interface SearchOptions {
  maxResults?: number
  includeDomains?: string[]
  excludeDomains?: string[]
  startPublishedDate?: string
  endPublishedDate?: string
  category?: string
}

maxResults works with every search provider. Domain filtering is supported by Exa, Tavily, and Jina include filters (site). Date ranges are currently Exa-specific. category is supported by Exa, Jina (web, images, news), and SearXNG.

Read options you can pass to readUrl:

interface ReadUrlOptions {
  provider?: 'jina' // custom registered provider names are also accepted at runtime
  format?: 'markdown' | 'text' | 'html'
  maxTokens?: number
  targetSelector?: string
  removeSelector?: string
  timeout?: number
  noCache?: boolean
}

Development

pnpm install
pnpm typecheck   # tsc --noEmit
pnpm build       # obuild
pnpm test        # vitest (watch mode)
pnpm test:run    # vitest --run

License

MIT