Make Parallel the web search/extract backend with a zero-setup free tier:
- Keyless (no PARALLEL_API_KEY): web_search/web_extract work out of the box via
Parallel's free hosted Search MCP (search.parallel.ai/mcp), and parallel
becomes the default backend when no other web credentials are configured
(ahead of ddgs, which is search-only). A small hand-rolled Streamable-HTTP
JSON-RPC client speaks the MCP's web_search/web_fetch tools; the existing
web_search/web_extract tools are the only tools registered.
- Keyed (PARALLEL_API_KEY set): uses the Parallel v1 REST endpoints
(client.search / client.extract with advanced_settings.full_content) — no beta.
Bumps parallel-web 0.4.2 -> 0.6.0.
- Attribution: on the free path only, results carry provider/attribution and the
CLI tool line reads "Parallel search" / "Parallel fetch"; the paid path is
unbranded.
- Selection/registration: web tools register unconditionally (free MCP backstop)
while check_web_api_key remains a real usability probe; explicit per-capability
backends are honored (so misconfig surfaces) rather than masked by the fallback.
Tested: live web_search/web_extract against search.parallel.ai in keyless and
keyed modes; unit suites for the MCP client, backend selection, and display
labeling; full agent run shows the "Parallel search" label on the free path.
Backend selection ordered firecrawl (including the Nous-managed-tool-gateway
probe) ahead of explicit-credential backends, so a user who had both a
Nous OAuth token AND a TAVILY_API_KEY (or EXA/PARALLEL key) got firecrawl
auto-selected — then the request failed at runtime because the free Nous
tier does not include web search, and there is no fallback to the next
available backend. Explicit user setup lost to a managed convenience.
Reorder so direct-credential backends (tavily > exa > parallel > firecrawl-
direct) are tried first, then the managed-gateway firecrawl probe, then
free-tier fallbacks. Behaviour for users with only Nous OAuth (no
explicit key) is unchanged — firecrawl-via-gateway is still selected.
Behaviour change to flag: a user with BOTH a Nous OAuth token AND a
TAVILY_API_KEY (or EXA/PARALLEL key) now gets the explicit backend
instead of the managed gateway. This matches the principle of least
surprise — a user does not set TAVILY_API_KEY without intent — and
sidesteps the silent runtime failure of the gateway path on free tiers.
Cuts over web_search_tool, web_extract_tool, and web_crawl_tool in
tools/web_tools.py to dispatch through agent.web_search_registry
instead of the legacy hardcoded if-elif backend chains.
Per-tool changes:
web_search_tool (sync)
Replace 5 backend branches (parallel, exa, registry-3-providers,
tavily, firecrawl-fallthrough) with a single registry path:
1. _get_search_backend() resolves the configured name
2. _wsp_get_provider(name) for explicit-config-wins semantics
3. get_active_search_provider() fallback for typo / unknown name
4. provider.search(query, limit) — sync for all 7 providers
web_extract_tool (async)
Replace 4 backend branches (parallel-async, exa-sync, tavily-sync,
search-only-error, firecrawl-perurl-loop) with:
1. Same provider resolution as search.
2. When configured backend IS registered but doesn't support
extract (search-only providers like brave-free), surface a
typed "search-only" error matching the legacy text — tests
assert that wording.
3. inspect.iscoroutinefunction(provider.extract) detects sync vs
async: parallel + firecrawl are async; exa + tavily are sync.
Sync extracts run in asyncio.to_thread() so we don't block.
web_crawl_tool (async)
Replace tavily-specific branch + search-only-error block with:
1. _wsp_get_provider(backend) — explicit config first
2. Search-only typed error when the configured name doesn't
support crawl (matches legacy phrasing)
3. get_active_crawl_provider() fallback otherwise
4. provider.crawl(url, **kwargs) — async-or-sync dispatch as above
5. Response post-processing (LLM summarization, trimming) stays
unchanged — it's not provider-specific.
When no plugin advertises supports_crawl, falls through to the
existing Firecrawl-via-web-summarize path below (unchanged).
Test updates (2 tests in tests/tools/test_web_tools_config.py):
- test_web_search_clamps_limit_before_backend_call:
patch("tools.web_tools._parallel_search") -> patch the registry
provider returned by agent.web_search_registry.get_provider
- test_search_error_response_does_not_expose_diagnostics:
patch("tools.web_tools._get_firecrawl_client") -> same pattern
Tests unchanged (still pass):
- All TestXBackendWiring classes (test _get_backend / _is_backend_available
config-resolution, independent of dispatch)
- All TestXSearchOnlyErrors classes (test the search-only error path
via web_extract_tool / web_crawl_tool — error text preserved)
- 141 passing web tests total, 0 regressions.
Dead-code cleanup deferred to a follow-up commit so this diff stays
focused on the cutover. After this commit:
- tools.web_tools._exa_search / _exa_extract / _parallel_search /
_parallel_extract / _tavily_request / _normalize_tavily_* /
_get_firecrawl_client / _extract_web_search_results /
_extract_scrape_payload / _to_plain_object / _normalize_result_list
are no longer called by the dispatchers, but still exist.
- The config-resolution layer (_get_backend, _is_backend_available,
_is_tool_gateway_ready, _has_direct_firecrawl_config) IS still in
use and must stay.
- The Firecrawl proxy and check_firecrawl_api_key are still imported
by integration tests and patched by unit tests — must stay (or be
re-exported from the plugin).
First pass of test-suite reduction to address flaky CI and bloat.
Removed tests that fall into these change-detector patterns:
1. Source-grep tests (tests/gateway/test_feishu.py, test_email.py): tests
that call inspect.getsource() on production modules and grep for string
literals. Break on any refactor/rename even when behavior is correct.
2. Platform enum tautologies (every gateway/test_X.py): assertions like
`Platform.X.value == 'x'` duplicated across ~9 adapter test files.
3. Toolset/PLATFORM_HINTS/setup-wizard registry-presence checks: tests that
only verify a key exists in a dict. Data-layout tests, not behavior.
4. Argparse wiring tests (test_argparse_flag_propagation, test_subparser_routing
_fallback): tests that do parser.parse_args([...]) then assert args.field.
Tests Python's argparse, not our code.
5. Pure dispatch tests (test_plugins_cmd.TestPluginsCommandDispatch): patch
cmd_X, call plugins_command with matching action, assert mock called.
Tests the if/elif chain, not behavior.
6. Kwarg-to-mock verification (test_auxiliary_client ~45 tests,
test_web_tools_config, test_gemini_cloudcode, test_retaindb_plugin): tests
that mock the external API client, call our function, and assert exact
kwargs. Break on refactor even when behavior is preserved.
7. Schedule-internal "function-was-called" tests (acp/test_server scheduling
tests): tests that patch own helper method, then assert it was called.
Kept behavioral tests throughout: error paths (pytest.raises), security
tests (path traversal, SSRF, redaction), message alternation invariants,
provider API format conversion, streaming logic, memory contract, real
config load/merge tests.
Net reduction: 169 tests removed. 38 empty classes cleaned up.
Collected before: 12,522 tests
Collected after: 12,353 tests
Replace the HERMES_ENABLE_NOUS_MANAGED_TOOLS env-var feature flag with
subscription-based detection. The Tool Gateway is now available to any
paid Nous subscriber without needing a hidden env var.
Core changes:
- managed_nous_tools_enabled() checks get_nous_auth_status() +
check_nous_free_tier() instead of an env var
- New use_gateway config flag per tool section (web, tts, browser,
image_gen) records explicit user opt-in and overrides direct API
keys at runtime
- New prefers_gateway(section) shared helper in tool_backend_helpers.py
used by all 4 tool runtimes (web, tts, image gen, browser)
UX flow:
- hermes model: after Nous login/model selection, shows a curses
prompt listing all gateway-eligible tools with current status.
User chooses to enable all, enable only unconfigured tools, or skip.
Defaults to Enable for new users, Skip when direct keys exist.
- hermes tools: provider selection now manages use_gateway flag —
selecting Nous Subscription sets it, selecting any other provider
clears it
- hermes status: renamed section to Nous Tool Gateway, added
free-tier upgrade nudge for logged-in free users
- curses_radiolist: new description parameter for multi-line context
that survives the screen clear
Runtime behavior:
- Each tool runtime (web_tools, tts_tool, image_generation_tool,
browser_use) checks prefers_gateway() before falling back to
direct env-var credentials
- get_nous_subscription_features() respects use_gateway flags,
suppressing direct credential detection when the user opted in
Removed:
- HERMES_ENABLE_NOUS_MANAGED_TOOLS env var and all references
- apply_nous_provider_defaults() silent TTS auto-set
- get_nous_subscription_explainer_lines() static text
- Override env var warnings (use_gateway handles this properly now)
- add managed modal and gateway-backed tool integrations\n- improve CLI setup, auth, and configuration for subscriber flows\n- expand tests and docs for managed tool support
Salvage of PR #1707 by @kshitijk4poor (cherry-picked with authorship preserved).
Adds Tavily as a third web backend alongside Firecrawl and Parallel, using the Tavily REST API via httpx.
- Backend selection via hermes tools → saved as web.backend in config.yaml
- All three tools supported: search, extract, crawl
- TAVILY_API_KEY in config registry, doctor, status, setup wizard
- 15 new Tavily tests + 9 backend selection tests + 5 config tests
- Backward compatible
Closes#1707
* feat(web): add Parallel as alternative web search/extract backend
Adds Parallel (parallel.ai) as a drop-in alternative to Firecrawl for
web_search and web_extract tools using the official parallel-web SDK.
- Backend selection via WEB_SEARCH_BACKEND env var (auto/parallel/firecrawl)
- Auto mode prefers Firecrawl when both keys present; Parallel when sole backend
- web_crawl remains Firecrawl-only with clear error when unavailable
- Lazy SDK imports, interrupt support, singleton clients
- 16 new unit tests for backend selection and client config
Co-authored-by: s-jag <s-jag@users.noreply.github.com>
* fix: add PARALLEL_API_KEY to config registry and fix web_crawl policy tests
Follow-up for Parallel backend integration:
- Add PARALLEL_API_KEY to OPTIONAL_ENV_VARS (hermes doctor, env blocklist)
- Add to set_config_value api_keys list (hermes config set)
- Add to doctor keys display
- Fix 2 web_crawl policy tests that didn't set FIRECRAWL_API_KEY
(needed now that web_crawl has a Firecrawl availability guard)
* refactor: explicit backend selection via hermes tools, not auto-detect
Replace the auto-detect backend selection with explicit user choice:
- hermes tools saves WEB_SEARCH_BACKEND to .env when user picks a provider
- _get_backend() reads the explicit choice first
- Fallback only for manual/legacy config (uses whichever key is present)
- _is_provider_active() shows [active] for the selected web backend
- Updated tests, docs, and .env.example to remove 'auto' mode language
* refactor: use config.yaml for web backend, not env var
Match the TTS/browser pattern — web.backend is stored in config.yaml
(set by hermes tools), not as a WEB_SEARCH_BACKEND env var.
- _load_web_config() reads web: section from config.yaml
- _get_backend() reads web.backend from config, falls back to key detection
- _configure_provider() saves to config dict (saved to config.yaml)
- _is_provider_active() reads from config dict
- Removed WEB_SEARCH_BACKEND from .env.example, set_config_value, docs
- Updated all tests to mock _load_web_config instead of env vars
---------
Co-authored-by: s-jag <s-jag@users.noreply.github.com>
On top of PR #460: self-hosted Firecrawl instances don't require an API
key (USE_DB_AUTHENTICATION=false), so don't force users to set a dummy
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY when FIRECRAWL_API_URL is set. Also adds a proper
self-hosting section to the configuration docs explaining what you get,
what you lose, and how to set it up (Docker stack, tradeoffs vs cloud).
Added 2 more tests (URL-only without key, neither-set raises).
Adds optional FIRECRAWL_API_URL environment variable to support
self-hosted Firecrawl deployments alongside the cloud service.
- Add FIRECRAWL_API_URL to optional env vars in hermes_cli/config.py
- Update _get_firecrawl_client() in tools/web_tools.py to accept custom API URL
- Add tests for client initialization with/without URL
- Document new env var in installation and config guides
