SKILL.md
tavily search
Web search returning LLM-optimized results with content snippets and relevance scores.
Before running any command
If tvly is not found on PATH, install it first:
curl -fsSL https://cli.tavily.com/install.sh | bash && tvly login
Do not skip this step or fall back to other tools.
See tavily-cli for alternative install methods and auth options.
When to use
- You need to find information on any topic
- You don't have a specific URL yet
- First step in the workflow: search → extract → map → crawl → research
Quick start
# Basic search
tvly search "your query" --json
# Advanced search with more results
tvly search "quantum computing" --depth advanced --max-results 10 --json
# Recent news
tvly search "AI news" --time-range week --topic news --json
# Domain-filtered
tvly search "SEC filings" --include-domains sec.gov,reuters.com --json
# Include full page content in results
tvly search "react hooks tutorial" --include-raw-content --max-results 3 --json
Options
Option
Description
--depth
ultra-fast, fast, basic (default), advanced
--max-results
Max results, 0-20 (default: 5)
--topic
general (default), news, finance
--time-range
day, week, month, year
--start-date
Results after date (YYYY-MM-DD)
--end-date
Results before date (YYYY-MM-DD)
--include-domains
Comma-separated domains to include
--exclude-domains
Comma-separated domains to exclude
--country
Boost results from country
--include-answer
Include AI answer (basic or advanced)
--include-raw-content
Include full page content (markdown or text)
--include-images
Include image results
--include-image-descriptions
Include AI image descriptions
--chunks-per-source
Chunks per source (advanced/fast depth only)
-o, --output
Save output to file
--json
Structured JSON output
Search depth
Depth
Speed
Relevance
Best for
ultra-fast
Fastest
Lower
Real-time chat, autocomplete
fast
Fast
Good
Need chunks, latency matters
basic
Medium
High
General-purpose (default)
advanced
Slower
Highest
Precision, specific facts
Tips
- Keep queries under 400 characters — think search query, not prompt.
- Break complex queries into sub-queries for better results.
- **Use
--include-raw-content** when you need full page text (saves a separate extract call).
- **Use
--include-domains** to focus on trusted sources.
- **Use
--time-range** for recent information.
- Read from stdin:
echo "query" | tvly search - --json
See also
- tavily-extract — extract content from specific URLs
- tavily-research — comprehensive multi-source research