Web Search

OpenCompany ships four web search nodes, usable in two ways:

As a workflow step — drop the node on the canvas, set the Query parameter, and wire its output into downstream nodes (Brave, Serper, and Perplexity are dual-purpose nodes).
As an AI agent tool — connect the node’s tool output to an AI Agent’s tools input. The agent sees the node as a callable tool, fills in the query itself, and decides when (and whether) to search during its reasoning loop. All four nodes work this way; DuckDuckGo is a pure tool node, so this is its only mode.

The same parameters documented below apply on both paths — when an agent calls the tool, the LLM fills the same parameter schema you would fill in the parameter panel.

Choosing a search node

Node	API key needed	Best for
DuckDuckGo Search	None (free)	Zero-setup web search; the default choice for agent tools
Brave Search	Brave Search API key	Ranked web results with title/snippet/URL, country and language targeting
Serper Search	Serper API key	Google results, including news, images, and places verticals
Perplexity Search	Perplexity API key	An AI-written answer with citation URLs, not a raw result list

Paid keys are added in the credentials modal: Brave Search, Serper, and Perplexity each have their own entry with an API Key field.

DuckDuckGo Search

Free web search with no API key and no credentials, via the ddgs Python library. This is a pure tool node — its only entry point is an AI agent calling it through the tools connection, so it exposes a Tool output handle rather than a main output. The tool is exposed to the LLM as web_search.

Parameters

string

required

Search query

number

default:"5"

Maximum results to return (1-20)

Output

{
  "query": "workflow automation platforms",
  "results": [
    {"title": "Result title", "snippet": "Result body text...", "url": "https://example.com/page"}
  ],
  "provider": "duckduckgo"
}

If DuckDuckGo rejects the query (rate limit, transient network failure, bot detection), the node surfaces a clean “DuckDuckGo search failed” error that the agent can act on by retrying with a different query.

Brave Search

Free-text web search via the Brave Search REST API. Returns ranked web results with title, snippet, and URL. Tool name when connected to an agent: brave_search.

Parameters

string

required

Search query

number

default:"10"

Maximum results to return (1-20). Values above 20 fail validation rather than being silently capped.

string

ISO country code (e.g. US). Only sent to the API when set.

string

default:"en"

ISO language code

select

default:"moderate"

One of off, moderate, or strict

Output

{
  "query": "workflow automation platforms",
  "results": [
    {"title": "Result title", "snippet": "Result summary...", "url": "https://example.com/page"}
  ],
  "result_count": 10,
  "provider": "brave_search"
}

Example: country-targeted search

Query: best coffee subscription
Max Results: 5
Country: US
Safe Search: moderate

Serper Search

Google SERP results via the Serper API. Supports four search verticals — web, news, images, and places — plus optional knowledge-graph enrichment on the default web search. Tool name when connected to an agent: serper_search.

Parameters

string

required

Search query

select

default:"search"

One of search (web), news, images, or places

number

default:"10"

Maximum results to return (1-100)

string

Country code, sent as Google’s gl parameter. Only sent when set.

string

default:"en"

Language code, sent as Google’s hl parameter

Output

{
  "query": "openai announcements",
  "results": [
    {"title": "Result title", "snippet": "Result summary...", "url": "https://example.com/page", "position": 1}
  ],
  "result_count": 10,
  "search_type": "search",
  "knowledge_graph": null,
  "provider": "serper"
}

Every result uses the same unified shape regardless of vertical; fields a vertical does not populate are left empty:

Vertical	Populated fields
`search`	`title`, `snippet`, `url`, `position`
`news`	`title`, `snippet`, `url`
`images`	`title`, `url` (image URL)
`places`	`title`, `url` (website)

knowledge_graph is only set when Google returns a knowledge-graph panel for the query.

Perplexity Search

An AI-generated answer with inline citations from Perplexity’s Sonar models. Instead of a raw result list, you get an LLM-written markdown answer plus the citation URLs the model used, so downstream nodes can render references or follow the sources. Tool name when connected to an agent: perplexity_search.

Parameters

string

required

Question for the model

select

default:"sonar"

One of sonar, sonar-pro, sonar-reasoning, or sonar-reasoning-pro

select

default:"all"

Restrict sources by recency: all (off), month, week, day, or hour

boolean

default:"false"

Request images from the API

Request related questions from the API

Output

{
  "query": "what changed in the latest React release?",
  "answer": "Markdown answer with inline citations...",
  "citations": ["https://react.dev/blog/..."],
  "results": [{"url": "https://react.dev/blog/..."}],
  "images": null,
  "related_questions": null,
  "model": "sonar",
  "provider": "perplexity"
}

The results list is a remap of the citation URLs — entries carry only url, not title or snippet. If downstream nodes need titles and snippets, use Brave Search or Serper Search instead.

Give your agent search

Any search node becomes an agent tool by connecting its tool output to the AI Agent’s tools input:

[DuckDuckGo Search] --> (tools) [AI Agent] <-- (model) [Chat Model]

Once connected, the agent decides when to search. It may answer directly from its own knowledge, or call the tool one or more times with queries it composes itself — you do not script the searches. The node’s tool description tells the LLM what the tool does; each node ships a sensible default. Connect several search nodes at once and the agent picks between them (for example, DuckDuckGo for general lookups and Perplexity when it wants a synthesized, cited answer).

Example: research agent

The cheapest possible research setup — the only credential required is the API key for your chat model, because DuckDuckGo needs none:

[Chat Trigger] --> [AI Agent] <-- (model) [OpenAI Chat Model]
                       ^
                       | (tools)
              [DuckDuckGo Search]

Drop an AI Agent on the canvas and connect a chat model.
Add a DuckDuckGo Search node and connect its Tool handle to the agent’s tools input.
Ask the agent something time-sensitive in the Chat panel, e.g. “What were the top tech headlines this week? Summarize in three bullets.”

The agent calls web_search (possibly several times with refined queries), reads the snippets, and writes the summary.

Tips

Start with DuckDuckGo Search — it is free and needs no key. Add Brave Search or Serper Search when you need country/language targeting, more results, or Google’s verticals.

Perplexity Search returns an answer, not links. Use it when the agent needs a synthesized, cited response in one call; use the other nodes when downstream logic needs structured result lists.

Keep max_results small for agent tools. Fewer, more relevant snippets keep the agent’s context lean and its follow-up queries sharper.

Brave’s max_results is hard-limited to 20 — a larger value fails parameter validation instead of being clamped. Serper accepts up to 100.

AI Agents

Connect search tools to agents

Scraping & Proxies

Read full pages instead of snippets

Browser Automation

Click, type, and extract from live pages

Tools

The full AI tool catalogue

Concepts

Node catalog

Choosing a search node

DuckDuckGo Search

Parameters

Output

Brave Search

Parameters

Output

Example: country-targeted search

Serper Search

Parameters

Output

Perplexity Search

Parameters

Output

Give your agent search

Example: research agent

Tips

AI Agents

Scraping & Proxies

Browser Automation

Tools

​Choosing a search node

​DuckDuckGo Search

​Parameters

​Output

​Brave Search

​Parameters

​Output

​Example: country-targeted search

​Serper Search

​Parameters

​Output

​Perplexity Search

​Parameters

​Output

​Give your agent search

​Example: research agent

​Tips

​Related

AI Agents

Scraping & Proxies

Browser Automation

Tools

Choosing a search node

DuckDuckGo Search

Parameters

Output

Brave Search

Parameters

Output

Example: country-targeted search

Serper Search

Parameters

Output

Perplexity Search

Parameters

Output

Give your agent search

Example: research agent

Tips

Related