tota can search the web using three providers. Set one API key and the web_search tool is available immediately.
Providers
| Provider | Env Var | Free tier | Sign up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brave Search | BRAVE_API_KEY | Yes (2,000 req/month) | brave.com/search/api |
| Serper | SERPER_API_KEY | Yes (2,500 req) | serper.dev |
| Tavily | TAVILY_API_KEY | Yes (1,000 req/month) | tavily.com |
Setup
Add your key to ~/.tota/.env:
BRAVE_API_KEY=your-key-here
That's it. The web_search tool is enabled by default and auto-detects the provider from whichever key it finds.
Provider selection
When WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER=auto (the default), tota checks for keys in this order:
BRAVE_API_KEYSERPER_API_KEYTAVILY_API_KEY
To pin a specific provider:
WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER=serper
SERPER_API_KEY=your-key-here
Options
| Env Var | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
WEB_SEARCH_ENABLED | Enable or disable the tool entirely | true |
WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER | auto, brave, serper, or tavily | auto |
WEB_SEARCH_MAX_RESULTS | Maximum results per search (1–10) | 5 |
Usage
Just ask naturally — the agent decides when to search:
What are the latest LLM benchmarks?
Search for the Node.js 22 changelog and summarize the main changes.
You can also specify the number of results:
Search for "vitest vs jest" and give me the top 3 results.
Result format
Results are returned as numbered markdown with title, URL, and snippet:
**Web Search Results for:** vitest vs jest
1. **Vitest vs Jest: A comparison** — https://example.com/...
Vitest is a Vite-native test framework...
2. ...