Search Tools

File: assistant/search_tools.go (248 lines)

The search system provides multi-source web search with automatic fallback chains. It powers the websearch and news_summary tools used by agents for real-time information retrieval.

Architecture

WebSearchTool() / GetNewsSummaryTool()
    ↓
Tier 1: Perplexity Direct API (sonar-pro)
    ↓ (on failure)
Tier 2: OpenRouter (perplexity/llama-3.1-sonar-small-128k-online)
    ↓ (on failure)
Tier 3: Brave Web Search (shell script tool)
    ↓ (all fail)
Return error

Search Functions

WebSearchTool

WebSearchTool(session, args) — General web search.

Parameters: {query: string}
Tier 1: Direct Perplexity API via NewPerplexityClient().QueryPerplexityDirect()
Tier 2: OpenRouter with perplexity/llama-3.1-sonar-small-128k-online
Tier 3: Falls back to brave_web_search shell tool via session.ExecuteTool()
Timeout: 60 seconds per search context

GetNewsSummaryTool

GetNewsSummaryTool(session, args) — Category-specific news search.

Parameters: {category: string, topic: string}
Tier 1: Direct Perplexity with sonar-pro model
Tier 2: OpenRouter with perplexity/sonar-pro
Tier 3: Brave search
Same 60s timeout

NewsDeepDiveTool

NewsDeepDiveTool(session, args) — Multi-stage news investigation.

Parameters: {topic: string}
Stage 1: Factual search via Perplexity Direct (sonar-pro)
Stage 2: Social sentiment analysis via Grok-2 model
Stage 3: Nikki persona synthesis combining both sources
Output: Structured "Deep Dive Report" with THE SITUATION, THE PUBLIC PULSE, MY ANALYSIS sections

Perplexity Client

File: assistant/perplexity_client.go

Component	Details
`PerplexityClient`	HTTP client with 60s timeout
Base URL	`https://api.perplexity.ai`
`QueryPerplexityDirect()`	Direct query using `sonar-pro` model
`GlobalPerplexityQuery()`	Convenience wrapper for direct access without session

Note: Perplexity is NOT registered in the llmClients map. It's instantiated directly when needed for search operations.

Observability Integration

All search operations log provider metrics via GlobalObservabilityDB.LogProviderMetric(), tracking success/failure rates and latency per provider tier.

See also: LLM Providers