Brave search

Brave Search API

OpenClaw supports Brave Search API as a

provider.

Get an API key

1. Create a Brave Search API account at https://brave.com/search/api/
2. In the dashboard, choose the Search plan and generate an API key.
3. Store the key in config or set
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   BRAVE_API_KEY
   in the Gateway environment.

Config example

json5
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{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      brave: {
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            apiKey: "BRAVE_API_KEY_HERE",
            mode: "web", // or "llm-context"
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "brave",
        maxResults: 5,
        timeoutSeconds: 30,
      },
    },
  },
}

Provider-specific Brave search settings now live under

. Legacy still loads through the compatibility shim, but it is no longer the canonical config path.

controls the Brave transport:

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  web
  (default): normal Brave web search with titles, URLs, and snippets
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  llm-context
  : Brave LLM Context API with pre-extracted text chunks and sources for grounding

Tool parameters

Search query. Number of results to return (1–10). 2-letter ISO country code (e.g. `US`, `DE`). ISO 639-1 language code for search results (e.g. `en`, `de`, `fr`). Brave search-language code (e.g. `en`, `en-gb`, `zh-hans`). ISO language code for UI elements. Time filter — `day` is 24 hours. Only results published after this date (`YYYY-MM-DD`). Only results published before this date (`YYYY-MM-DD`).

Examples:

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// Country and language-specific search
await web_search({
  query: "renewable energy",
  country: "DE",
  language: "de",
});

// Recent results (past week)
await web_search({
  query: "AI news",
  freshness: "week",
});

// Date range search
await web_search({
  query: "AI developments",
  date_after: "2024-01-01",
  date_before: "2024-06-30",
});

Notes

• OpenClaw uses the Brave Search plan. If you have a legacy subscription (e.g. the original Free plan with 2,000 queries/month), it remains valid but does not include newer features like LLM Context or higher rate limits.
• Each Brave plan includes $5/month in free credit (renewing). The Search plan costs $5 per 1,000 requests, so the credit covers 1,000 queries/month. Set your usage limit in the Brave dashboard to avoid unexpected charges. See the Brave API portal for current plans.
• The Search plan includes the LLM Context endpoint and AI inference rights. Storing results to train or tune models requires a plan with explicit storage rights. See the Brave Terms of Service.
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  llm-context
  mode returns grounded source entries instead of the normal web-search snippet shape.
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  llm-context
  mode does not support
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  ui_lang
  ,
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  freshness
  ,
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  date_after
  , or
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  date_before
  .
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  ui_lang
  must include a region subtag like
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  en-US
  .
• Results are cached for 15 minutes by default (configurable via
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  cacheTtlMinutes
  ).

Related

• Web Search overview -- all providers and auto-detection
• Perplexity Search -- structured results with domain filtering
• Exa Search -- neural search with content extraction