Providers

Complete provider reference for Web Search in BoxLang AI

BoxLang AI supports multiple web search providers behind a single interface. All providers normalize output to the same 8-field result format.

Result Format

Every provider returns this structure:

{
    title: "Result Title",
    url: "https://example.com/page",
    snippet: "Result summary text",
    publishedDate: "2026-05-14",
    domain: "example.com",
    score: 0.92,
    thumbnail: "https://example.com/image.jpg",
    language: "en"
}

Provider Comparison

Provider	Key Required	Best For	Notes
http	No	URL fetching and local testing	No search index, fetches/parses target URL
brave	BRAVE_API_KEY	Privacy-focused web search	Free tier available
google	GOOGLE_API_KEY + GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE_ID	Broad web coverage	Requires Custom Search setup
tavily	TAVILY_API_KEY	AI-focused retrieval	Good for agent workflows
exa	EXA_API_KEY	Neural and semantic search	Supports keyword, neural, magic

HTTP Provider (http)

Use the HTTP provider when you want to fetch and parse a specific URL without external search APIs.

results = aiWebSearch(
    "https://boxlang.io",
    {
        provider: "http",
        maxResults: 5
    }
)

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
maxResults	numeric	5	Maximum results returned
timeout	numeric	30	HTTP timeout in seconds
logRequest	boolean	false	Log request details
logResponse	boolean	false	Log response details

Brave Provider (brave)

results = aiWebSearch(
    "latest BoxLang release",
    {
        provider: "brave",
        maxResults: 10,
        country: "us",
        language: "en",
        safeSearch: "moderate"
    }
)

Authentication

export BRAVE_API_KEY="your-key"

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
country	string	"us"	Country filter
language	string	"en"	Language filter
safeSearch	string	"moderate"	Safe search mode
maxResults	numeric	5	Maximum results
timeout	numeric	30	Request timeout

Google Provider (google)

results = aiWebSearch(
    "BoxLang AI module",
    {
        provider: "google",
        maxResults: 10,
        gl: "us",
        hl: "en",
        safe: "active"
    }
)

Authentication

export GOOGLE_API_KEY="your-google-key"
export GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE_ID="your-search-engine-id"

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
gl	string	"us"	Country target
hl	string	"en"	Interface language
safe	string	"off"	Safe search filter
maxResults	numeric	5	Maximum results
timeout	numeric	30	Request timeout

Tavily Provider (tavily)

results = aiWebSearch(
    "what changed in BoxLang AI 3.2.0",
    {
        provider: "tavily",
        maxResults: 8,
        topic: "general",
        includeAnswer: true,
        includeRawContent: false,
        days: 30
    }
)

Authentication

export TAVILY_API_KEY="your-tavily-key"

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
topic	string	"general"	Search topic mode
includeAnswer	boolean	false	Include provider summary answer
includeRawContent	boolean	false	Include raw content from source
days	numeric	0	Recency filter in days
maxResults	numeric	5	Maximum results
timeout	numeric	30	Request timeout

Exa Provider (exa)

results = aiWebSearch(
    "vector memory techniques",
    {
        provider: "exa",
        maxResults: 10,
        type: "neural",
        country: "us",
        language: "en"
    }
)

Authentication

export EXA_API_KEY="your-exa-key"

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
type	string	"magic"	Search type: keyword, neural, magic
country	string	"us"	Country filter
language	string	"en"	Language filter
maxResults	numeric	5	Maximum results
timeout	numeric	30	Request timeout

Provider Selection Strategy

1. Start with http for local testing and deterministic URL ingestion.
2. Use brave or google for broad web search.
3. Use tavily when agents need retrieval-focused answers.
4. Use exa for semantic discovery and neural relevance.

Related

• Overview
• Getting Started
• Agent Integration
• Security Guide