Replace the hermes-identifying clientInfo/User-Agent/session-id prefix on
the keyless Parallel Search MCP path with a neutral 'mcp-web-client'
identity. Project policy forbids third-party usage attribution without an
explicit user opt-in (see telemetry PR policy); MCP requires a clientInfo,
so a generic one satisfies the spec without attributing traffic.
Also adds the contributor AUTHOR_MAP entry and refreshes uv.lock against
current main (parallel-web 0.6.0).
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.
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.
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
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)
