Using your agent
Set up web search
Give your agent the live web, either free with a private search engine on your own computer (salts-tools), or with a Brave Search API key and no installing.
Without web search, your agent only knows what its model learned when it was trained, so it cannot tell you today's news, a current price or whether a shop is open. With web search switched on, your agent can look things up and tell you where the answer came from.
Your agent needs a search engine to search with, and there are two ways to give it one:
| Option | Good for | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| salts-tools | Free searching with no limits | A computer that stays on, and about fifteen minutes in a terminal |
| Brave | No installing at all | A Brave account and a card. The free plan is enough for one person |
Option
salts-tools
Good for
Free searching with no limits
What you need
A computer that stays on, and about fifteen minutes in a terminal
Option
Brave
Good for
No installing at all
What you need
A Brave account and a card. The free plan is enough for one person
If you have never used a terminal before, we recommend starting with Brave. You can switch to salts-tools later.
Using Brave
- Create an account at brave.com/search/api and subscribe to the free plan. Brave asks for a card, and any searches beyond the free plan are billed by Brave.
- Copy your API key.
- Open your agent, go to Capabilities and switch on Web search.
- Paste your key into Brave Search API key.
That is all. When a Brave key is set, your agent always uses Brave, even if salts-tools is also running.
Using salts-tools
salts-tools is a small program that runs a private search engine called SearXNG on your computer and connects it to your agent. It works on Mac, Windows and Linux. If you are not sure what it is yet, read What is salts-tools first.
What to expect:
- Your agent can only search while your computer is on, awake and connected to the internet.
- You will install three free tools: Docker, Node.js and cloudflared. You do not need an account for any of them.
- Follow Install salts-tools. Make sure you install Docker in step 1, since the search engine needs it.
- In the salts-tools screen, open your agent in the Agents tab and press Enter on Web search. salts-tools connects it to that agent within a few seconds.
- If Web search is switched off in the agent's Capabilities, the agent shows it as to do: press Enter on it to switch it on.
- Leave Brave Search API key empty in Capabilities. When a Brave key is set, your agent uses Brave instead, and salts-tools reminds you of that.
You are done
Ask your agent something that needs the web, for example "What is the weather in Mumbai today?". Your agent will search on its own whenever a question needs it, so you do not have to ask it to search.
If you also want your agent to open search results and read the full page, switch on Read a URL in Capabilities.
Footnotes
- If your agent stops searching with salts-tools, check that your computer is awake and online, then run
npx salts-tools restart. See Everyday use for the other commands. - If the salts-tools screen says
disconnected, runnpx salts-toolsto connect your computer again. - If your agent is not searching when it should, add this to Custom instructions in Settings: "Search the web for anything about current events, prices or dates." A stronger model also helps.