Removes the legacy in-tree provider scaffolding that PR #25182 fully
replaced with the plugin architecture:
tools/web_providers/__init__.py (6 lines)
tools/web_providers/base.py (89 lines — old ABCs)
tools/web_providers/ARCHITECTURE.md (73 lines — old design doc)
These were the staging-ground ABCs and provider modules that the
plugin migration absorbed. All seven web providers now implement the
single :class:`agent.web_search_provider.WebSearchProvider` ABC and
live under ``plugins/web/<vendor>/``. Nothing else in the tree imports
``tools.web_providers`` — verified via grep before deletion.
Test migration (tests/tools/test_web_providers.py)
--------------------------------------------------
Rewrote ``TestWebProviderABCs`` to test the new unified ABC at
:mod:`agent.web_search_provider`:
- test_cannot_instantiate_abc_directly — abstract ``name`` + ``is_available``
- test_concrete_search_only_provider_works — exercise default
``supports_extract=False`` / ``supports_crawl=False`` flags
- test_concrete_multi_capability_provider_works — exercise all three
capabilities, async extract supported (declared sync here for
simplicity; real plugins like parallel + firecrawl use async)
- test_search_only_provider_skips_extract_and_crawl — verify
``supports_*()`` flags default to False so search-only providers
don't have to implement extract() or crawl()
The 9 other tests in the file (per-capability backend selection,
DEFAULT_CONFIG merge, dispatcher routing) test public helpers in
``tools.web_tools`` that still exist and pass unchanged.
agent/web_search_provider.py docstring updated to reflect that the
legacy ABCs no longer exist; the response-shape contract is preserved
bit-for-bit so external consumers see no behavioral change.
Net diff
--------
- tools/web_providers/ removed (-168 lines)
- tests/tools/test_web_providers.py rewritten ABC section (+78/-30 net,
same coverage, new API)
- agent/web_search_provider.py docstring (-3/+5 lines)
Verified
--------
- 173/173 targeted web tests pass
- 12/12 ABC contract tests pass with the new interface
- No remaining grep hits for ``tools.web_providers`` outside of
intentional historical references in plugin docstrings.
Introduce the foundation for independently selecting web search and
extract backends — enabling future combinations like SearXNG for
search + Firecrawl for extract.
Architecture:
- tools/web_providers/base.py: WebSearchProvider and WebExtractProvider
ABCs with normalized result contracts (mirrors CloudBrowserProvider)
- tools/web_tools.py: _get_search_backend() and _get_extract_backend()
read per-capability config keys, fall through to shared web.backend
- hermes_cli/config.py: web.search_backend and web.extract_backend in
DEFAULT_CONFIG (empty = inherit from web.backend)
Behavioral change:
- web_search_tool() now dispatches via _get_search_backend()
- web_extract_tool() now dispatches via _get_extract_backend()
- When per-capability keys are empty (default), behavior is identical
to before — _get_search_backend() falls through to _get_backend()
This is purely structural — no new backends are added. SearXNG and
other search-only/extract-only providers can now be added as simple
drop-in modules in follow-up PRs.
12 new tests, 49 existing tests pass with zero regressions.
Ref: #19198
