tavily-search

tavily search

Web search returning LLM-optimized results with content snippets and relevance scores.

Before running

Run search directly when tvly is available. Search supports capped keyless access, so do not look for an API key or authenticate before the first request.

If tvly is missing, follow the tavily-cli setup before retrying. If the keyless cap is reached in an interactive session, run tvly login to open browser OAuth, then retry the original search once. In an unattended environment, report the cap and authentication options instead of starting an interactive flow. Do not start a second login immediately after guided setup has completed.

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 the JSON response to a 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.
• Verify identity-sensitive facts at the exact primary source. For releases, versions, ownership, or similarly named projects, confirm the official repository or domain instead of trusting a generated answer or package-name match alone.
• Read from stdin: echo "query" | tvly search - --json

See also

• tavily-extract — extract content from specific URLs
• tavily-research — comprehensive multi-source research