Search

Search the web with attributed results and automatic fallback across sources.

search returns ranked results with their URL, title and snippet. Every result says which source found it.

Free by default: your own SearXNG, then DuckDuckGo and Bing.
Paid sources Exa, Brave, Tavily and Parallel join when their keys are set and you allow paid tools.
Name a source and Frankensurf uses only that one, never a substitute.

Usage

results = await web.search("playwright python tutorial", limit=10)
for hit in results["results"]:
    print(hit["title"], hit["url"])

frankensurf search playwright python tutorial --limit 10

{ "tool": "search", "arguments": { "query": "playwright python tutorial", "limit": 10 } }

{
  "query": "playwright python tutorial",
  "source": "searxng",
  "coverage": "partial",
  "results": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.browserstack.com/guide/playwright-python-tutorial",
      "title": "The ultimate Playwright Python tutorial | BrowserStack",
      "snippet": "Learn end-to-end web testing with Playwright Python…",
      "engines": ["duckduckgo"],
      "verification": "indexed_discovery"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://playwright.dev/python/docs/library",
      "title": "Getting started - Library | Playwright Python",
      "snippet": "These commands download the Playwright package and install browser binaries…",
      "engines": ["duckduckgo"],
      "verification": "indexed_discovery"
    }
  ],
  "upstream_failures": [["brave", "too many requests"], ["google cse", "too many requests"]]
}

coverage: "partial" and upstream_failures show that some of SearXNG’s own engines were rate-limited. Failures stay visible instead of looking like “no results”.

Options

Option	Default	Description
`source`	automatic	One source only: `searxng`, `duckduckgo_html`, `bing_rss`, `exa`, `brave`, `tavily`, `parallel`.
`limit`	`10`	Number of results.
`search_source_prefer`	none	Try these sources first.
`search_source_allow`	all	Only these sources may run.
`search_source_timeout_seconds`	`8`	Time per source.
`allow_paid_fallbacks`	`false`	Let the paid sources join.