pi-anysearch-tools

pi-anysearch-tools is a Pi Coding Agent extension that adds the anysearch_search tool. It searches fresh, external web information through the AnySearch API:

POST https://api.anysearch.com/v1/search

Use it for current documentation, news, prices, products, people, comparisons, fact-checking, and other information that may not be available in the model's training data. It is a web-search tool—not a replacement for Pi's local file or shell tools.

中文说明：这是一个面向 Pi Coding Agent 的 AnySearch 联网搜索扩展。无需 API key 也可匿名使用，但匿名请求受速率和配额限制。

Core capabilities

• Ranked web results with titles, URLs, and snippets.
• Optional cleaned page content with include_content: true.
• Region, language, vertical-search tag, and provider-specific parameter support.
• Anonymous access without initial configuration.
• Optional API-key authentication from an environment variable or Pi agent configuration.
• Compact Pi TUI rendering, with summaries available in expanded mode.

Installation

Install the published npm package:

pi install npm:pi-anysearch-tools

Local development and temporary use

From a checkout of this repository:

# Load the extension for the current Pi invocation only
pi -e .

# Install the local directory as a Pi package
pi install .

API key configuration

Configuration priority is:

ANYSEARCH_API_KEY environment variable
> ~/.pi/agent/anysearch.json
> anonymous mode

Set the environment variable in your shell or CI environment:

export ANYSEARCH_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Or create ~/.pi/agent/anysearch.json:

{
  "anysearchApiKey": "your-api-key"
}

~/.pi/agent is Pi's default agent directory. If PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR is set, the extension reads anysearch.json from that directory instead.

Anonymous mode remains usable when no key is configured, but it has stricter rate and quota limits.

Pi commands

/anysearch-setup

Opens an interactive prompt and saves the key to the Pi agent configuration file. The new key is used by subsequent searches without restarting Pi, unless a non-empty ANYSEARCH_API_KEY remains set; the environment variable always takes precedence.

/anysearch-status

Shows the configuration path and reports only 已配置 (configured) or 匿名模式 (anonymous mode). It does not display the key or a key prefix.

postinstall behavior

The npm package includes a postinstall script:

• In an interactive terminal, it may ask for an API key when none is configured. Press Enter to keep using anonymous mode.
• In a non-interactive installation, it skips the prompt and prints setup guidance; installation still succeeds.
• If npm lifecycle scripts are disabled, for example with npm install --ignore-scripts, the script does not run.

You can always configure the extension later with /anysearch-setup or ANYSEARCH_API_KEY.

Tool reference

anysearch_search

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	Yes	Non-empty web search query. Whitespace-only values are rejected.
max_results	integer	No	Number of results, from 1 to 20. Default: 10.
tag	string	No	Vertical capability tag such as code.doc or news.
zone	cn | intl	No	Search region.
language	string	No	Preferred language, such as zh-CN or en.
params	object	No	Extra AnyMix parameters, such as {"ticker":"AAPL"}.
include_content	boolean	No	Include cleaned page content. This produces a substantially larger response.

Example tool arguments:

{
  "query": "latest Pi Coding Agent extension documentation",
  "max_results": 5,
  "zone": "intl",
  "language": "en",
  "include_content": false
}

Returned results

The tool returns numbered text for the agent. Each result contains:

1. title;
2. URL;
3. snippet, when available;
4. cleaned page content only when include_content is true.

Structured result details also contain the result list, API metadata, and an apiKeyUsed boolean. They never contain the API key. API and network failures are thrown so Pi can mark the tool result as an error.

In the TUI, the default view stays compact. Expanding the tool result shows snippets, but the renderer does not repeat full page bodies.

Coexisting with pi-web-access

This package can be installed alongside pi-web-access. pi-anysearch-tools registers the distinct tool name anysearch_search, so it does not replace pi-web-access tools such as web_search.

Use anysearch_search when you want a direct AnySearch entry point; keep pi-web-access when you also want its broader provider and web-access features.

Security

• Never commit API keys to Git, source files, examples, or issue reports.
• Prefer ANYSEARCH_API_KEY for CI and managed environments.
• The configuration file stores the key locally as plain JSON; protect access to your Pi agent directory.
• Pi extensions execute with the user's permissions. Review the source before installation.
• This extension performs network requests to https://api.anysearch.com/v1/search when anysearch_search is called. It does not make a network request merely by loading the extension.

Development and verification

npm install --ignore-scripts
npm test
npm pack --dry-run

For a temporary local Pi run:

pi -e .

Links

• GitHub repository
• npm package
• Pi package page
• AnySearch Search API documentation
• Pi Coding Agent

License

MIT, as declared in package.json.