Agents

Web search

The built-in tool that lets an agent look something up online during a conversation, and what you can configure about it.

Web search lets an agent look something up online in the middle of a conversation. It is a system tool, key web_search, and its card in Built-in tools reads "Allow the agent to search the web for up-to-date information." It is off on every new agent.

What it does

The agent runs the search and folds the result into what it says next. There is no endpoint of yours involved and nothing to authenticate.

When the agent calls it

The agent decides, from the description you give the tool. That description is the only text it receives about the tool, so it is the whole trigger.

Every agent starts with stock wording. Write your own when the stock wording is too broad or too narrow for one agent.

Recommended

Use this only for prices, opening hours and availability on our public website,
and only when the caller asks for something the knowledge base does not answer.

Less effective

Search the web.

A description that invites search for anything makes the agent reach for the web instead of the knowledge you loaded, which is slower and less predictable. For facts about your own business, load a knowledge source: see Knowledge overview.

Settings

Web search runs with interruption suppression off. There is no control for it in the portal today. The settings dialog edits the toggle and the description.

What the caller experiences

A search takes time the caller can hear. The caller can speak over the agent while the search is running and be heard, so on a voice channel they can cut in with "actually, never mind" instead of waiting.

Limits

Limit Value
Description length No limit on the value itself. The portal's box stops at 500 characters
Enabled on a new agent No
Search provider, number of results, per-call quota Not configurable

Turning it on

Open the agent, go to the Tools tab, and switch the Web search card on. The settings button on the card opens the description box and Reset to default. The change applies to the next conversation, not to one already running.

Building an agent with AI can also switch it on: a proposed agent may name web_search among its built-in tools, and that is applied once the agent exists.

FAQ

Does the agent search the web on every turn?

No. It searches when the description tells it to, and never otherwise. Narrow the description if it is searching more than you want.

Can I restrict the search to my own site?

Not as a setting. Name the site and the topics in the description, which is the only instruction the agent gets about this tool.

Should I use web search for questions about my business?

No. Load that material as a knowledge source instead. Web search is for information that lives outside what you have given the agent.

Why can callers talk over the agent while it is searching?

Because interruption suppression is off for web search, and the portal has no control for it. Narrow the description so the agent searches only when it has to.