Changelog - Web Search Plus
[2.9.0] - 2026-03-12
✨ New Provider: Querit (Multilingual AI Search)
[Querit.ai](https://querit.ai) is a Singapore-based multilingual AI search API purpose-built for LLMs and RAG pipelines. 300 billion page index, 20+ countries, 10+ languages.
Added Querit as the 7th search provider via `https://api.querit.ai/v1/search`
Configure via `QUERIT_API_KEY` — optional, gracefully skipped if not set
Routing score: `research * 0.65 + rag * 0.35 + recency * 0.45` — favored for multilingual and real-time queries
Handles Querit's quirky `error_code=200` responses as success (not an error)
Handles `IncompleteRead` as transient/retryable failure
Live-tested with 10 benchmark queries ✅
🔧 Fixed: Fallback chain dies on unconfigured provider
`sys.exit(1)` in `validate_api_key()` raised `SystemExit` (inherits from `BaseException`), which bypassed the `except Exception` fallback loop and killed the entire process instead of trying the next provider
Replaced with catchable `ProviderConfigError` — fallback chain now continues correctly through all configured providers
🔧 Fixed: Perplexity citations are generic placeholders
Previously extracted citation URLs via regex from the answer text, resulting in generic "Source 1" / "Source 2" labels
Now uses the structured `data["citations"]` array from the Perplexity API response directly — results have readable titles
Regex extraction kept as fallback when API doesn't return a `citations` field
✨ Improved: German locale routing patterns
Added German-language signal patterns for local and news queries
Improves auto-routing for queries like `"aktuelle Nachrichten"`, `"beste Restaurants Graz"`, `"KI Regulierung Europa"`
📝 Documentation
Added Querit to README provider tables, routing examples, and API key setup section
Added `querit_api_key` to `config.example.json`
Updated `SKILL.md` provider mentions and env metadata
Bumped package version to `2.9.0`
[2.8.6] - 2026-03-03
Changed
Documented Perplexity Sonar Pro usage and refreshed release docs.
[2.8.5] - 2026-02-20
✨ Feature: Perplexity freshness filter
Added `freshness` parameter to Perplexity provider (`day`, `week`, `month`, `year`)
Maps to Perplexity's native `search_recency_filter` parameter
Example: `python3 scripts/search.py -p perplexity -q "latest AI news" --freshness day`
Consistent with freshness support in Serper and Brave providers
[2.8.4] - 2026-02-20
🔒 Security Fix: SSRF protection in setup wizard
Fixed: `setup.py` SearXNG connection test had no SSRF protection (unlike `search.py`)
Before: Operator could be tricked into probing internal networks during setup
After: Same IP validation as `search.py` — blocks private IPs, cloud metadata, loopback
Credit: ClawHub security scanner
[2.8.3] - 2026-02-20
🐛 Critical Fix: Perplexity results empty
Fixed: Perplexity provider returned 0 results because the AI-synthesized answer wasn't mapped into the results array
Before: Only extracted URLs from the answer text were returned as results (often 0)
After: The full answer is now the primary result (title, snippet with cleaned text), extracted source URLs follow as additional results
Impact: Perplexity queries now always return at least 1 result with the synthesized answer
[2.8.0] - 2026-02-20
🆕 New Provider: Perplexity (AI-Synthesized Answers)
Added Perplexity as the 6th search provider via Kilo Gateway — the first provider that returns direct answers with citations instead of just links:
#### Features
AI-Synthesized Answers: Get a complete answer, not a list of links
Inline Citations: Every claim backed by `[1][2][3]` source references
Real-Time Web Search: Perplexity searches the web live, reads pages, and summarizes
Zero Extra Config: Works through Kilo Gateway with your existing `KILOCODE_API_KEY`
Model: `perplexity/sonar-pro` (best quality, supports complex queries)
#### Auto-Routing Signals
New direct-answer intent detection routes to Perplexity for:
Status queries: "status of", "current state of", "what is the status"
Local info: "events in [city]", "things to do in", "what's happening in"
Direct questions: "what is", "who is", "when did", "how many"
Current affairs: "this week", "this weekend", "right now", "today"
#### Usage Examples
```bash
Auto-routed
python3 scripts/search.py -q "events in Graz Austria this weekend" # → Perplexity
python3 scripts/search.py -q "what is the current status of Ethereum" # → Perplexity
Explicit
python3 scripts/search.py -p perplexity -q "latest AI regulation news"
```
#### Configuration
Requires `KILOCODE_API_KEY` environment variable (Kilo Gateway account).
No additional API key needed — Perplexity is accessed through Kilo's unified API.
```bash
export KILOCODE_API_KEY="your-kilo-key"
```
🔧 Routing Rebalance
Major overhaul of the auto-routing confidence scoring to fix Serper dominance:
#### Problem
Serper (Google) was winning ~90% of queries due to:
High recency multiplier boosting Serper on any query with dates/years
Default provider priority placing Serper first in ties
Research and discovery signals not strong enough to override
#### Changes
Lowered Serper recency multiplier — date mentions no longer auto-route to Google
Strengthened research signals for Tavily:
- Added: "status of", "what happened with", "how does X compare"
- Boosted weights for comparison patterns (4.0 → 5.0)
Strengthened discovery signals for Exa:
- Added: "events in", "things to do in", "startups similar to"
- Boosted weights for local discovery patterns
Updated provider priority order: `tavily → exa → perplexity → serper → you → searxng`
- Serper moved from 1st to 4th in tie-breaking
- Research/discovery providers now win on ambiguous queries
#### Routing Test Results
| Query | Before | After | ✓ |
|-------|--------|-------|---|
| "latest OpenClaw version Feb 2026" | Serper | Serper | ✅ |
| "Ethereum Pectra upgrade status" | Serper | Tavily | ✅ |
| "events in Graz this weekend" | Serper | Perplexity | ✅ |
| "compare SearXNG vs Brave for AI agents" | Serper | Tavily | ✅ |
| "Sam Altman OpenAI news this week" | Serper | Serper | ✅ |
| "find startups similar to Kilo Code" | Serper | Exa | ✅ |
📊 Updated Provider Comparison
| Feature | Serper | Tavily | Exa | Perplexity | You.com | SearXNG |
|---------|:------:|:------:|:---:|:----------:|:-------:|:-------:|
| Speed | ⚡⚡⚡ | ⚡⚡ | ⚡⚡ | ⚡⚡ | ⚡⚡⚡ | ⚡ |
| Direct Answers | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Citations | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Local Events | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Research | ✗ | ✓✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Discovery | ✗ | ✗ | ✓✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Self-Hosted | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
[2.7.0] - 2026-02-14
✨ Added
Provider cooldown tracking in `.cache/provider_health.json`
Exponential cooldown on provider failures: 1m → 5m → 25m → 1h (cap)
Retry strategy for transient failures (timeout, 429, 503): up to 2 retries with backoff 1s → 3s → 9s
Smarter cache keys hashed from full request context (query/provider/max_results + locale, freshness, time_range, topic, search_engines, include_news, and related params)
Cross-provider result deduplication by normalized URL during fallback merge
🔧 Changed
Cooldown providers are skipped in routing while their cooldown is active
Provider health is reset automatically after successful requests
Fallback output now includes dedup metadata:
- `deduplicated: true|false`
- `metadata.dedup_count`
[2.6.5] - 2026-02-11
🆕 File-Based Result Caching
Added local caching to save API costs on repeated searches:
#### Features
Automatic Caching: Search results cached locally by default
1-Hour TTL: Results expire after 3600 seconds (configurable)
Cache Indicators: Response includes `cached: true/false` and `cache_age_seconds`
Zero-Cost Repeats: Cached requests don't hit APIs
#### New CLI Options
`--cache-ttl SECONDS` — Custom cache TTL (default: 3600)
`--no-cache` — Bypass cache, always fetch fresh
`--clear-cache` — Delete all cached results
`--cache-stats` — Show cache statistics (entries, size, age)
#### Configuration
Cache directory: `.cache/` in skill directory
Environment variable: `WSP_CACHE_DIR` to override location
Cache key: Based on query + provider + max_results (SHA256)
#### Usage Examples
```bash
First request costs API credits
python3 scripts/search.py -q "AI startups"
Second request is FREE (uses cache)
python3 scripts/search.py -q "AI startups"
Force fresh results
python3 scripts/search.py -q "AI startups" --no-cache
View stats
python3 scripts/search.py --cache-stats
Clear everything
python3 scripts/search.py --clear-cache
```
#### Technical Details
Cache files: JSON with metadata (_cache_timestamp, _cache_key, etc.)
Automatic cleanup of expired entries on access
Graceful handling of corrupted cache files
[2.6.1] - 2026-02-04
Privacy cleanup: removed hardcoded paths and personal info from docs
[2.5.0] - 2026-02-03
🆕 New Provider: SearXNG (Privacy-First Meta-Search)
Added SearXNG as the 5th search provider, focused on privacy and self-hosted search:
#### Features
Privacy-Preserving: No tracking, no profiling — your searches stay private
Multi-Source Aggregation: Queries 70+ upstream engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.)
$0 API Cost: Self-hosted = unlimited queries with no API fees
Diverse Results: Get perspectives from multiple search engines in one query
Customizable: Choose which engines to use, set SafeSearch levels, language preferences
#### Auto-Routing Signals
New privacy/multi-source intent detection routes to SearXNG for:
Privacy queries: "private", "anonymous", "without tracking", "no tracking"
Multi-source: "aggregate results", "multiple sources", "diverse perspectives"
Budget/free: "free search", "no api cost", "self-hosted search"
German: "privat", "anonym", "ohne tracking", "verschiedene quellen"
#### Usage Examples
```bash
Auto-routed
python3 scripts/search.py -q "search privately without tracking" # → SearXNG
Explicit
python3 scripts/search.py -p searxng -q "linux distros"
python3 scripts/search.py -p searxng -q "AI news" --engines "google,bing,duckduckgo"
python3 scripts/search.py -p searxng -q "privacy tools" --searxng-safesearch 2
```
#### Configuration
```json
{
"searxng": {
"instance_url": "https://your-instance.example.com",
"safesearch": 0,
"engines": null,
"language": "en"
}
}
```
#### Setup
SearXNG requires a self-hosted instance with JSON format enabled:
```bash
Docker setup (5 minutes)
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 searxng/searxng
Enable JSON in settings.yml:
search:
formats: [html, json]
Set instance URL
export SEARXNG_INSTANCE_URL="http://localhost:8080"
```
See: https://docs.searxng.org/admin/installation.html
📊 Updated Provider Comparison
| Feature | Serper | Tavily | Exa | You.com | SearXNG |
|---------|:------:|:------:|:---:|:-------:|:-------:|
| Privacy-First | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓✓ |
| Self-Hosted | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| API Cost | $$ | $$ | $$ | $ | FREE |
| Multi-Engine | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ (70+) |
🔧 Technical Changes
Added `search_searxng()` function with full error handling
Added `PRIVACY_SIGNALS` to QueryAnalyzer for auto-routing
Updated setup wizard with SearXNG option (instance URL validation)
Updated config.example.json with searxng section
New CLI args: `--searxng-url`, `--searxng-safesearch`, `--engines`, `--categories`
---
[2.4.4] - 2026-02-03
📝 Documentation: Provider Count Fix
Fixed: "You can use 1, 2, or all 3" → "1, 2, 3, or all 4" (we have 4 providers now!)
Impact: Accurate documentation for setup wizard
[2.4.3] - 2026-02-03
📝 Documentation: Updated README
Added: "NEW in v2.4.2" badge for You.com in SKILL.md
Impact: ClawHub README now properly highlights You.com as new feature
[2.4.2] - 2026-02-03
🐛 Critical Fix: You.com API Configuration
Fixed: Incorrect hostname (`api.ydc-index.io` → `ydc-index.io`)
Fixed: Incorrect header name (`X-API-Key` → `X-API-KEY` uppercase)
Impact: You.com now works correctly - was giving 403 Forbidden before
Status: ✅ Fully tested and working
[2.4.1] - 2026-02-03
🐛 Bugfix: You.com URL Encoding
Fixed: URL encoding for You.com queries - spaces and special characters now properly encoded
Impact: Queries with spaces (e.g., "OpenClaw AI framework") work correctly now
Technical: Added `urllib.parse.quote` for parameter encoding
[2.4.0] - 2026-02-03
🆕 New Provider: You.com
Added You.com as the 4th search provider, optimized for RAG applications and real-time information:
#### Features
LLM-Ready Snippets: Pre-extracted, query-aware text excerpts perfect for feeding into AI models
Unified Web + News: Get both web pages and news articles in a single API call
Live Crawling: Fetch full page content on-demand in Markdown format (`--livecrawl`)
Automatic News Classification: Intelligently includes news results based on query intent
Freshness Controls: Filter by recency (day, week, month, year, or date range)
SafeSearch Support: Content filtering (off, moderate, strict)
#### Auto-Routing Signals
New RAG/Real-time intent detection routes to You.com for:
RAG context queries: "summarize", "key points", "tldr", "context for"
Real-time info: "latest news", "current status", "right now", "what's happening"
Information synthesis: "updates on", "situation", "main takeaways"
#### Usage Examples
```bash
Auto-routed
python3 scripts/search.py -q "summarize key points about AI regulation" # → You.com
Explicit
python3 scripts/search.py -p you -q "climate change" --livecrawl all
python3 scripts/search.py -p you -q "tech news" --freshness week
```
#### Configuration
```json
{
"you": {
"country": "US",
"language": "en",
"safesearch": "moderate",
"include_news": true
}
}
```
#### API Key Setup
```bash
export YOU_API_KEY="your-key" # Get from https://api.you.com
```
📊 Updated Provider Comparison
| Feature | Serper | Tavily | Exa | You.com |
|---------|:------:|:------:|:---:|:-------:|
| Speed | ⚡⚡⚡ | ⚡⚡ | ⚡⚡ | ⚡⚡⚡ |
| News Integration | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| RAG-Optimized | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓✓ |
| Full Page Content | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
---
[2.1.5] - 2026-01-27
📝 Documentation
Added warning about NOT using Tavily/Serper/Exa in core OpenClaw config
Core OpenClaw only supports `brave` as the built-in provider
This skill's providers must be used via environment variables and scripts, not `openclaw.json`
[2.1.0] - 2026-01-23
🧠 Intelligent Multi-Signal Routing
Completely overhauled auto-routing with sophisticated query analysis:
#### Intent Classification
Shopping Intent: Detects price patterns ("how much", "cost of"), purchase signals ("buy", "order"), deal keywords, and product+brand combinations
Research Intent: Identifies explanation patterns ("how does", "why does"), analysis signals ("pros and cons", "compare"), learning keywords, and complex multi-clause queries
Discovery Intent: Recognizes similarity patterns ("similar to", "alternatives"), company discovery signals, URL/domain detection, and academic patterns
#### Linguistic Pattern Detection
"How much" / "price of" → Shopping (Serper)
"How does" / "Why does" / "Explain" → Research (Tavily)
"Companies like" / "Similar to" / "Alternatives" → Discovery (Exa)
Product + Brand name combos → Shopping (Serper)
URLs and domains in query → Similar search (Exa)
#### Query Analysis Features
Complexity scoring: Long, multi-clause queries get routed to research providers
URL detection: Automatic detection of URLs/domains triggers Exa similar search
Brand recognition: Tech brands (Apple, Samsung, Sony, etc.) with product terms → shopping
Recency signals: "latest", "2026", "breaking" boost news mode
#### Confidence Scoring
HIGH (70-100%): Strong signal match, very reliable routing
MEDIUM (40-69%): Good match, should work well
LOW (0-39%): Ambiguous query, using fallback provider
Confidence based on absolute signal strength + relative margin over alternatives
#### Enhanced Debug Mode
```bash
python3 scripts/search.py --explain-routing -q "your query"
```
Now shows:
Routing decision with confidence level
All provider scores
Top matched signals with weights
Query analysis (complexity, URL detection, recency focus)
All matched patterns per provider
🔧 Technical Changes
#### QueryAnalyzer Class
New `QueryAnalyzer` class with:
`SHOPPING_SIGNALS`: 25+ weighted patterns for shopping intent
`RESEARCH_SIGNALS`: 30+ weighted patterns for research intent
`DISCOVERY_SIGNALS`: 20+ weighted patterns for discovery intent
`LOCAL_NEWS_SIGNALS`: 25+ patterns for local/news queries
`BRAND_PATTERNS`: Tech brand detection regex
#### Signal Weighting
Multi-word phrases get higher weights (e.g., "how much" = 4.0 vs "price" = 3.0)
Strong signals: price patterns (4.0), similarity patterns (5.0), URLs (5.0)
Medium signals: product terms (2.5), learning keywords (2.5)
Bonus scoring: Product+brand combo (+3.0), complex query (+2.5)
#### Improved Output Format
```json
{
"routing": {
"auto_routed": true,
"provider": "serper",
"confidence": 0.78,
"confidence_level": "high",
"reason": "high_confidence_match",
"top_signals": [{"matched": "price", "weight": 3.0}],
"scores": {"serper": 7.0, "tavily": 0.0, "exa": 0.0}
}
}
```
📚 Documentation Updates
SKILL.md: Complete rewrite with signal tables and confidence scoring guide
README.md: Updated with intelligent routing examples and confidence levels
FAQ: Updated to explain multi-signal analysis
🧪 Test Results
| Query | Provider | Confidence | Signals |
|-------|----------|------------|---------|
| "how much does iPhone 16 cost" | Serper | 68% | "how much", brand+product |
| "how does quantum entanglement work" | Tavily | 86% HIGH | "how does", "what are", "implications" |
| "startups similar to Notion" | Exa | 76% HIGH | "similar to", "Series A" |
| "companies like stripe.com" | Exa | 100% HIGH | URL detected, "companies like" |
| "MacBook Pro M3 specs review" | Serper | 70% HIGH | brand+product, "specs", "review" |
| "Tesla" | Serper | 0% LOW | No signals (fallback) |
| "arxiv papers on transformers" | Exa | 58% | "arxiv" |
| "latest AI news 2026" | Serper | 77% HIGH | "latest", "news", "2026" |
---
[2.0.0] - 2026-01-23
🎉 Major Features
#### Smart Auto-Routing
Automatic provider selection based on query analysis
No need to manually choose provider - just search!
Intelligent keyword matching for routing decisions
Pattern detection for query types (shopping, research, discovery)
Scoring system for provider selection
#### User Configuration
config.json: Full control over auto-routing behavior
Configurable keyword mappings: Add your own routing keywords
Provider priority: Set tie-breaker order
Disable providers: Turn off providers you don't have API keys for
Enable/disable auto-routing: Opt-in or opt-out as needed
#### Debugging Tools
--explain-routing flag: See exactly why a provider was selected
Detailed routing metadata in JSON responses
Shows matched keywords and routing scores
📚 Documentation
README.md: Complete auto-routing guide with examples
SKILL.md: Detailed routing logic and configuration reference
FAQ section: Common questions about auto-routing
Configuration examples: Pre-built configs for common use cases
---
[1.0.x] - Initial Release
Multi-provider search: Serper, Tavily, Exa
Manual provider selection with `-p` flag
Unified JSON output format
Provider-specific options (--depth, --category, --similar-url, etc.)
Domain filtering for Tavily/Exa
Date filtering for Exa