Self-review of the plugin migration surfaced one warning and a handful of
doc/dead-code cleanups. None affect production behaviour through the main
dispatcher (which always calls `tools.web_tools._get_backend()` first and
preserves the full 7-provider walk), but direct callers of
`agent.web_search_registry.get_active_*_provider()` previously diverged
from the legacy order and could return `None` for users with credentials
but no explicit `web.backend` config key.
Changes
-------
1. `_LEGACY_PREFERENCE` was shipped as a 4-tuple
`("brave-free", "firecrawl", "searxng", "ddgs")` while the PR
description and the legacy `_get_backend()` candidate order both
call for the 7-tuple
`(firecrawl, parallel, tavily, exa, searxng, brave-free, ddgs)`.
Replaced with the 7-tuple. Verified empirically: with TAVILY+EXA keys
and no config, `get_active_search_provider()` now returns tavily
(was None); with EXA+PARALLEL it returns parallel (was None); with
BRAVE+FIRECRAWL it returns firecrawl (was brave-free).
2. `agent/web_search_registry.py` — module docstring, `_resolve` step-3
docstring, and inline comment all listed the old 4-tuple and claimed
"brave-free first because it was the shipped default". The legacy
default is `"firecrawl"`. Rewritten to match the new ordering and
reference `tools.web_tools._get_backend()` as the source of truth.
3. `agent/web_search_registry.py` — `get_active_crawl_provider`
docstring said "only Tavily implements it among built-in providers".
Firecrawl also advertises `supports_crawl=True` after the previous
commit. Updated to "Tavily and Firecrawl".
4. `plugins/web/tavily/provider.py` — module docstring said "Tavily is
the only built-in backend that natively crawls". Updated.
5. `agent/web_search_provider.py` — ABC docstring mentioned only
`search` / `extract` capabilities. Added `crawl` for accuracy.
6. `plugins/web/{firecrawl,parallel,exa}/provider.py` — dead plugin-level
cache globals (`_firecrawl_client`, `_parallel_client`,
`_async_parallel_client`, `_exa_client`) were declared but never read
(all reads/writes go through `_wt.*` per the `extracting-inline-
helpers-to-plugins` recipe). Removed the dead declarations; the
reset-for-tests helpers in firecrawl + parallel now clear the
canonical `_wt._<name>` slots, matching the pattern exa already used.
Tests
-----
218/218 web-targeted tests still pass (no test changes needed). 4910/4910
in `tests/tools/` still green.
The web-provider migration originally left firecrawl crawl as the only
provider-specific code remaining inline in tools/web_tools.py (~250
lines of Firecrawl-specific crawl orchestration that didn't fit the
plugin's existing surface). This commit closes that gap.
What this adds
--------------
1. plugins/web/firecrawl/provider.py: implement async ``crawl(url, **kwargs)``
- Accepts the same kwargs as the dispatcher passes to any crawl
provider (``instructions``, ``depth``, ``limit``); Firecrawl's
/crawl endpoint ignores ``instructions`` and ``depth`` so we log
and drop with a clear info message.
- Wraps the sync SDK ``crawl()`` call in asyncio.to_thread so the
gateway event loop isn't blocked on a multi-page crawl.
- Preserves the response-shape normalization across pydantic /
typed-object / dict variants that the legacy inline code did.
- Preserves per-page website-policy re-check (catches blocked
redirects after the SDK returns).
- Returns the same {"results": [...]} shape so the dispatcher's
shared LLM-summarization post-processing path works unchanged.
- Sets supports_crawl() to True so the dispatcher routes through
the plugin instead of the legacy fallthrough.
2. tools/web_tools.py: delete the entire legacy firecrawl crawl block
that used to run after "No registered provider supports crawl" —
~270 lines including:
- check_firecrawl_api_key gate + typed error
- inline SSRF + website-policy seed-URL gate (dispatcher already
does this)
- Firecrawl client setup with crawl_params
- 100+ lines of pydantic/dict/typed-object normalization
- Per-page LLM-processing loop (kept in the dispatcher's shared
post-processing path; that's where it always belonged)
- trimming + base64 image cleanup (still done in the dispatcher's
shared path)
Replaced with a single typed-error branch when no crawl-capable
provider is available: "web_crawl has no available backend. Set
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY (or FIRECRAWL_API_URL for self-hosted), or set
TAVILY_API_KEY for Tavily."
Test updates
------------
- tests/tools/test_website_policy.py:
- test_web_crawl_short_circuits_blocked_url: dispatcher seed-URL
gate still runs on web_tools.check_website_access (no change to
that patch), but the firecrawl client lockdown moved to the
plugin module — patch firecrawl_provider._get_firecrawl_client
instead of web_tools._get_firecrawl_client. The dispatcher
short-circuits before the plugin runs, so the test still passes.
- test_web_crawl_blocks_redirected_final_url: patch the per-page
policy gate at plugins.web.firecrawl.provider.check_website_access
(where it now runs) AND on web_tools (where the seed-URL gate
still runs). Patch firecrawl_provider._get_firecrawl_client for
the FakeCrawlClient injection. Both checks flow through the same
fake_check function.
- tests/plugins/web/test_web_search_provider_plugins.py:
- Update parametrized capability-flag spec: firecrawl supports_crawl
is now True.
- Add test_firecrawl_crawl_returns_error_dict_when_unconfigured —
verifies inspect.iscoroutinefunction(p.crawl) is True and that
the async crawl returns a per-page error dict (not a raise) when
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY is missing.
Verified
--------
- 218/218 web tests pass (was 173, +44 plugin tests + 1 new firecrawl
crawl test from this commit = 218 with the test deduplication).
- Compile-clean (py_compile passes on both files).
- Provider capabilities matrix confirmed end-to-end:
name search extract crawl async-extract? async-crawl?
firecrawl True True True True True
tavily True True True False False
Both crawl-capable providers exercise the dispatcher's
inspect.iscoroutinefunction async-or-sync detection.
Net diff
--------
- tools/web_tools.py: -254 lines (legacy inline crawl gone)
- plugins/web/firecrawl/provider.py: +185 lines (crawl method)
- test_website_policy.py: +14/-9 lines (patch locations)
- test_web_search_provider_plugins.py: +22/-1 lines (capability flag
+ new firecrawl crawl test)
- Total: -32 net LoC; tools/web_tools.py is now 1509 lines (was 1763
before this commit, 2227 before the migration started).
Removes the seven hardcoded TOOL_CATEGORIES["web"] provider rows that
duplicated the plugin-registered providers, and deletes the
_WEB_PLUGIN_SKIPLIST that existed to prevent duplicate picker rows
during the migration. The Web Search & Extract category now derives its
provider rows entirely from agent.web_search_registry via
_plugin_web_search_providers(), matching how Spotify, Google Meet, and
the image_gen plugins are surfaced.
Removed (deduplicated against plugin schemas):
- Firecrawl Cloud → plugins.web.firecrawl
- Exa → plugins.web.exa
- Parallel → plugins.web.parallel
- Tavily → plugins.web.tavily
- SearXNG → plugins.web.searxng
- Brave Search (Free Tier) → plugins.web.brave_free
- DuckDuckGo (ddgs) → plugins.web.ddgs (post_setup hook preserved)
Retained in TOOL_CATEGORIES["web"]:
- Nous Subscription — requires requires_nous_auth +
managed_nous_feature + override_env_vars
to drive the managed-gateway UX. Not a
provider — a different *setup flow* for the
firecrawl backend.
- Firecrawl Self-Hosted — points firecrawl at a private Docker URL
via FIRECRAWL_API_URL only. Same reason:
UX setup-flow row, not a provider.
These two rows describe alternative auth/billing paths for the
firecrawl backend; they intentionally share web_backend="firecrawl"
with the plugin row but light up different env-var prompts.
Plugin schema extensions
------------------------
- ddgs plugin's get_setup_schema() now emits `post_setup: "ddgs"` so
selection still triggers the pip-install hook in _run_post_setup().
- _plugin_web_search_providers() passes `post_setup` through verbatim
when present in the schema (other future plugins like camofox / a
hypothetical playwright-web plugin can opt in the same way).
- Picker rows now carry both `web_backend` (legacy field consumed by
setup + selection helpers) and `web_search_plugin_name`
(informational marker), so behavior is identical between hardcoded
and plugin-registered rows.
Net diff
--------
- hermes_cli/tools_config.py: -141/+50 lines (~91 lines net)
- plugins/web/ddgs/provider.py: +7/-4 (post_setup field + badge polish)
Verified
--------
- Compile-clean for both files
- Picker shows: 2 hardcoded rows (Nous Subscription, Firecrawl
Self-Hosted) + 7 plugin rows (alphabetically: Brave Search,
DuckDuckGo, Exa, Firecrawl, Parallel, SearXNG, Tavily). DuckDuckGo
row carries post_setup="ddgs" for first-time install.
- 173 web-specific tests still pass.
Removes ~580 lines of dead code from tools/web_tools.py that were
superseded by the plugin migration but kept around in the cutover commit
to keep the diff focused. Replaces them with thin re-export shims so
existing tests and external callers that reach for the legacy
``tools.web_tools.<name>`` paths continue to work transparently.
Deleted from tools/web_tools.py
--------------------------------
- Lazy Firecrawl SDK proxy (_load_firecrawl_cls, _FirecrawlProxy,
_FIRECRAWL_CLS_CACHE, the Firecrawl singleton)
- Firecrawl client section (_get_direct_firecrawl_config,
_get_firecrawl_gateway_url, _is_tool_gateway_ready,
_has_direct_firecrawl_config, _raise_web_backend_configuration_error,
_firecrawl_backend_help_suffix, _get_firecrawl_client)
- Parallel client section (_get_parallel_client,
_get_async_parallel_client, _parallel_client, _async_parallel_client)
- Tavily client section (_TAVILY_BASE_URL, _tavily_request,
_normalize_tavily_search_results, _normalize_tavily_documents)
- Generic SDK normalizers (_to_plain_object, _normalize_result_list,
_extract_web_search_results, _extract_scrape_payload)
- Exa client section (_get_exa_client, _exa_client, _exa_search,
_exa_extract)
- Parallel helpers (_parallel_search, _parallel_extract)
- Duplicate inline check_firecrawl_api_key
Net: tools/web_tools.py drops from 2227 → 1613 lines (-614 lines).
Re-exports added at top of tools/web_tools.py
---------------------------------------------
- From plugins.web.firecrawl.provider:
Firecrawl, _FirecrawlProxy, _FIRECRAWL_CLS_CACHE, _load_firecrawl_cls,
_get_direct_firecrawl_config, _get_firecrawl_gateway_url,
_is_tool_gateway_ready, _has_direct_firecrawl_config,
_firecrawl_backend_help_suffix, _raise_web_backend_configuration_error,
_get_firecrawl_client, _to_plain_object, _normalize_result_list,
_extract_web_search_results, _extract_scrape_payload,
check_firecrawl_api_key
- From plugins.web.tavily.provider:
_tavily_request, _normalize_tavily_search_results,
_normalize_tavily_documents
- From plugins.web.parallel.provider:
_get_parallel_client, _get_async_parallel_client
- From plugins.web.exa.provider:
_get_exa_client
Plus retained module-level imports for backward-compat with tests:
- httpx (tests patch tools.web_tools.httpx for tavily request mocking)
- build_vendor_gateway_url, _read_nous_access_token,
resolve_managed_tool_gateway, managed_nous_tools_enabled,
prefers_gateway (tests patch tools.web_tools.<name>)
Plugin indirection pattern (key technique)
------------------------------------------
For functions inside the firecrawl/parallel/exa plugins to honor
unit-test patches that target ``tools.web_tools.<name>``, the plugin
implementations now do ``import tools.web_tools as _wt`` at call time
and read helper names through that module (``_wt._read_nous_access_token``,
``_wt.Firecrawl``, ``_wt.prefers_gateway``, etc.). This makes the
existing test patches transparently reach the plugin code without any
test changes.
The cached client globals (_firecrawl_client, _firecrawl_client_config,
_parallel_client, _async_parallel_client, _exa_client) also now live on
tools.web_tools so existing test setup_method handlers that reset
``tools.web_tools._<vendor>_client = None`` between cases keep working.
The plugins read/write the cache via getattr/setattr on the web_tools
module.
Verified
--------
- 173/173 targeted web tests pass:
test_web_providers.py, test_web_providers_brave_free.py,
test_web_providers_ddgs.py, test_web_providers_searxng.py,
test_web_tools_config.py, test_web_tools_tavily.py,
test_website_policy.py, test_config_null_guard.py
- Compile-clean (py_compile.compile passes)
- All inline implementations now exist in exactly one place
(plugins.web.<vendor>.provider)
Follow-up clean-up
------------------
- Drop _WEB_PLUGIN_SKIPLIST + hardcoded TOOL_CATEGORIES["web"] rows
(next commit)
- Delete tools/web_providers/ directory entirely
- Add tests/plugins/web/ coverage
- Full tests/tools/ + tests/gateway/ regression sweep before promoting PR
Two regressions discovered by running the full tests/tools/ suite after
the dispatcher cutover, both fixed in this commit:
1. web_crawl_tool incorrectly errored "search-only" for firecrawl
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The cutover treated any provider with supports_crawl()==False as a
search-only backend and returned the typed search-only error. But
firecrawl can crawl via the legacy multi-page-extract path inside
web_crawl_tool — it just doesn't expose supports_crawl on the plugin
(adding native firecrawl crawl is a clean follow-up).
Fix: only emit the search-only error when the provider supports
NEITHER crawl NOR extract (brave-free / ddgs / searxng). When the
provider supports extract but not crawl (firecrawl), fall through to
the legacy firecrawl-via-extract path below.
2. firecrawl plugin's check_website_access wasn't patchable
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The plugin imported `from tools.website_policy import check_website_access`
INSIDE the extract() function body, so monkeypatching the name on
plugins.web.firecrawl.provider had no effect — the inner import re-bound
the name on every call.
Fix: hoist the import to module level. Cheap (website_policy itself
has no heavy deps) and makes the standard
monkeypatch.setattr(firecrawl_provider, "check_website_access", ...)
pattern work.
Test updates (tests/tools/test_website_policy.py — 4 tests):
- test_web_extract_short_circuits_blocked_url
- test_web_extract_blocks_redirected_final_url
Both: patch the gate at plugins.web.firecrawl.provider (where it
runs after migration) and force the firecrawl plugin to be the
active extract provider via FIRECRAWL_API_KEY.
- test_web_crawl_short_circuits_blocked_url
- test_web_crawl_blocks_redirected_final_url
Both: unchanged — the dispatcher-level gate at tools.web_tools.py
line 1651 still uses the imported `check_website_access` name and
the firecrawl-fallthrough path is exercised as before.
Verified: 22/22 tests/tools/test_website_policy.py pass.
Migrates Firecrawl from inline code in tools/web_tools.py to a bundled
plugin at plugins/web/firecrawl/. By line count this is the largest of
the seven provider migrations: the firecrawl path captured most of the
file's vendor-specific complexity.
What moved into the plugin (all previously in tools/web_tools.py):
Lazy Firecrawl SDK proxy
- _load_firecrawl_cls() — caches the imported SDK class
- _FirecrawlProxy + Firecrawl singleton — defers ~200ms of SDK
imports until first construction or isinstance check.
Client construction (dual auth)
- _get_direct_firecrawl_config() — direct FIRECRAWL_API_KEY/URL path
- _get_firecrawl_gateway_url() — managed Nous tool-gateway URL
- _is_tool_gateway_ready() — gateway URL + Nous token check
- _has_direct_firecrawl_config() — direct config present?
- _get_firecrawl_client() — combined client construction
honoring web.use_gateway
- check_firecrawl_api_key() — top-level "is firecrawl usable"
- _firecrawl_backend_help_suffix() — managed-gateway help string
- _raise_web_backend_configuration_error() — typed misconfig error
Response shape normalization (vendor-specific)
- _to_plain_object(), _normalize_result_list() — SDK→dict helpers
- _extract_web_search_results() — handles SDK/direct/gateway shapes
- _extract_scrape_payload() — nested-data unwrap for scrape
Per-URL extract loop
- 60s asyncio.wait_for timeout per URL
- Pre-scrape website-policy gate
- Post-scrape redirect-aware SSRF re-check
- Format-aware content selection (markdown / html / auto)
- Per-URL errors returned as {"error": str} entries, no raises
Extract is declared `async def` — each URL is scraped in
asyncio.to_thread(...). This is the second async-extract plugin after
parallel.
The plugin re-exports `Firecrawl` (the lazy proxy) and
`check_firecrawl_api_key()` so existing tests doing
`patch("tools.web_tools.Firecrawl")` or
`monkeypatch.setattr(web_tools, "check_firecrawl_api_key", ...)` keep
working — tools/web_tools.py re-exports both names in the next
dispatcher-cutover commit.
Note: web_crawl_tool still has its own Firecrawl crawl path inline
(separate from extract); the Firecrawl SDK supports /crawl but we don't
expose supports_crawl=True on this plugin yet. Tavily handles crawl
today. Adding Firecrawl crawl is a clean follow-up.
Adds "firecrawl" to _WEB_PLUGIN_SKIPLIST.
E2E verified:
- All 7 providers register: brave-free, ddgs, exa, firecrawl,
parallel, searxng, tavily
- inspect.iscoroutinefunction(firecrawl.extract) -> True
- Firecrawl proxy is a callable lazy proxy at module level
- check_firecrawl_api_key reflects FIRECRAWL_API_KEY presence
Migrates Tavily from inline _tavily_request() / _normalize_tavily_*
helpers in tools/web_tools.py to a bundled plugin at plugins/web/tavily/.
First plugin in the codebase to advertise supports_crawl=True. Tavily is
unique among built-in backends in offering a native /crawl endpoint that
walks linked pages from a seed URL with optional natural-language
instructions and depth ("basic" or "advanced").
Capabilities:
- supports_search() -> True (Tavily /search)
- supports_extract() -> True (Tavily /extract)
- supports_crawl() -> True (Tavily /crawl)
All sync (httpx.post under the hood).
The crawl method accepts forward-compat kwargs (instructions, depth,
limit) and is gated against unsafe URLs/policy by the dispatcher in
web_crawl_tool — exactly as before.
Behavior preserved:
- TAVILY_API_KEY required (ValueError → typed error response)
- TAVILY_BASE_URL env override honored
- /crawl requires both body auth AND Bearer header — preserved
- failed_results[] and failed_urls[] response keys mapped to per-URL
items with error fields rather than raising
- max_results capped at 20 server-side
Adds "tavily" to _WEB_PLUGIN_SKIPLIST.
The legacy inline _tavily_request / _normalize_tavily_search_results /
_normalize_tavily_documents / _TAVILY_BASE_URL in tools/web_tools.py are
NOT deleted yet — search/extract dispatch and the entire web_crawl_tool
function still reference them. They go away when those dispatchers are
cut over to the registry.
E2E verified:
- Tavily registers with all 3 capabilities
- Provider list now: brave-free, ddgs, exa, parallel, searxng, tavily
Migrates Parallel.ai from inline `_parallel_search()` / `_parallel_extract()`
in tools/web_tools.py to a bundled plugin at plugins/web/parallel/.
First plugin in the codebase to expose an async :meth:`extract`:
- search() is sync — Parallel.beta.search
- extract() is **async def** — AsyncParallel.beta.extract
The ABC's docstring on supports_extract() already permits sync-or-async;
this commit is the first to exercise the async path. The web_extract_tool
dispatcher (next commit) detects coroutines via
inspect.iscoroutinefunction and awaits accordingly.
Behavior preserved:
- PARALLEL_API_KEY required (raises ValueError if missing → surfaced
as {"success": False, "error": "..."} instead)
- PARALLEL_SEARCH_MODE env var honored (agentic|fast|one-shot, default
agentic), validated via _resolve_search_mode()
- Limit capped at 20 server-side via min(limit, 20)
- Per-URL failure mode preserved: response.errors[] each become a
result dict with an "error" field rather than raising
- Module-level _parallel_client / _async_parallel_client caches kept
(mirrors legacy singleton pattern)
Adds "parallel" to _WEB_PLUGIN_SKIPLIST in hermes_cli/tools_config.py so
the picker doesn't double-list.
The legacy inline _parallel_search, _parallel_extract, _get_parallel_client,
_get_async_parallel_client in tools/web_tools.py are NOT deleted yet — the
dispatcher still calls them. They go away when the dispatcher cuts over.
E2E verified:
- inspect.iscoroutinefunction(p.search) -> False
- inspect.iscoroutinefunction(p.extract) -> True
- extract() returns a coroutine (not a list)
- 5 providers register correctly (brave-free, ddgs, exa, parallel, searxng)
Migrates Exa from the inline `_exa_search()` / `_exa_extract()` helpers in
tools/web_tools.py to a bundled plugin at plugins/web/exa/.
This is the first plugin in this PR to advertise supports_extract=True,
exercising the multi-capability ABC path that the initial three migrations
(brave_free, ddgs, searxng — all search-only) did not cover.
Both Exa methods are sync — the SDK is sync-only. The web_extract_tool
dispatcher in tools/web_tools.py will continue to call them inline until
Task "dispatch-extract-all" cuts it over to the registry.
Behaviour preserved bit-for-bit aside from the ABC method-name change:
- is_configured() -> is_available()
- provider_name() -> name (property)
- "exa" stays as the registered name
- Module-level `_exa_client` cache + lazy `from exa_py import Exa`
preserved at the new location.
- Errors (ValueError for missing API key, ImportError for missing SDK,
generic Exception) caught and surfaced as {"success": False, "error": ...}
instead of raising.
Adds "exa" to _WEB_PLUGIN_SKIPLIST in hermes_cli/tools_config.py so the
hardcoded TOOL_CATEGORIES["web"] row and the plugin-injected row don't
duplicate during the spike. The skip-list goes away in the cleanup phase
along with the hardcoded row.
The legacy inline `_exa_search` / `_exa_extract` / `_get_exa_client` /
`_exa_client` in tools/web_tools.py are NOT deleted yet — the dispatcher
still references them. They go away in the next dispatcher-cutover commit.
E2E verified:
- Plugin discovers + registers
- .supports_search/.supports_extract/.supports_crawl = (True, True, False)
- .get_setup_schema() returns the picker row shape
- resolve(): explicit exa + EXA_API_KEY -> exa; without key -> exa (registered
but unavailable, dispatcher surfaces "EXA_API_KEY not set" error)
Deletes tools/web_providers/{brave_free,ddgs,searxng}.py — the three
providers that moved to plugins/web/ in prior commits. tools/web_tools.py
no longer imports them (registry dispatch as of d8735963f), so removing
them is purely a cleanup pass.
Also migrates the existing tests to the new import paths:
tests/tools/test_web_providers_brave_free.py
tests/tools/test_web_providers_ddgs.py
tests/tools/test_web_providers_searxng.py
Mechanical rewrites:
- `from tools.web_providers.X import YSearchProvider`
-> `from plugins.web.X.provider import YWebSearchProvider`
- `.is_configured()` -> `.is_available()` (legacy method -> new method)
- `.provider_name()` -> `.name` (legacy method -> new property)
- `from tools.web_providers.base import WebSearchProvider`
-> `from agent.web_search_provider import WebSearchProvider`
(the subclass-check asserts membership in the new plugin-facing ABC)
- `sys.modules.delitem("tools.web_providers.ddgs")` updated to point at
`plugins.web.ddgs.provider` (cache-busting for lazy ddgs imports)
The TestXBackendWiring / TestXSearchOnlyErrors classes (covering
_is_backend_available, _get_backend, check_web_api_key, and the
"search-only" error paths in web_extract/web_crawl) are untouched —
those still test web_tools.py's backend-selection logic, which continues
to recognize the names "brave-free" / "ddgs" / "searxng" even after the
modules behind them moved to plugins.
tools/web_providers/base.py is intentionally NOT deleted by this commit
— it's the parent ABC of the legacy modules and shares its name with
agent/web_search_provider.py::WebSearchProvider. Removing it surfaces the
naming collision (see PR description Finding 0); the real migration PR
deletes it in the same commit that drops the _WEB_PLUGIN_SKIPLIST
guards in hermes_cli/tools_config.py.
Test results:
bash scripts/run_tests.sh tests/tools/test_web_providers_*.py
-> 65 passed in 3.41s (all rewritten unit tests + unchanged integration tests)
bash scripts/run_tests.sh tests/tools/test_web_*.py
-> 141 passed in 4.70s (full web test set, post-deletion)
Adds plugins/web/searxng/. SearXNG aggregates results from upstream engines
via its JSON API (/search?format=json) — search-only, no extract capability
(supports_extract() returns False).
E2E verified — registry now has ['brave-free', 'ddgs', 'searxng'].
Adds plugins/web/ddgs/ following the same plugins/image_gen/ pattern as
brave_free. DuckDuckGo search via the community ddgs package; no API key,
package is an optional dep gated by is_available().
E2E verified — registry now has ['brave-free', 'ddgs'].
Adds plugins/web/brave_free/ as the first plugin built against the new
WebSearchProvider ABC. Mirrors the plugins/image_gen/openai/ layout exactly:
plugins/web/brave_free/
plugin.yaml kind: backend, provides_web_providers: [brave-free]
__init__.py register(ctx) -> ctx.register_web_search_provider(...)
provider.py BraveFreeWebSearchProvider(WebSearchProvider)
Behavior preserved: same name ("brave-free" with hyphen), same env var
(BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY), same HTTP request shape, same response normalization.
The legacy tools/web_providers/brave_free.py is left in place — the
dispatcher in tools/web_tools.py still references it. Task 7 cuts over the
dispatcher to the new registry; Task 10 deletes the legacy file.
E2E verified:
HERMES_PLUGINS_DEBUG=1 python -c "
from hermes_cli.plugins import _ensure_plugins_discovered
_ensure_plugins_discovered()
from agent.web_search_registry import list_providers
print([p.name for p in list_providers()])
"
# -> ['brave-free']
