hermes-agent/website/docs/user-guide/features/web-search.md

title	description	sidebar_label	sidebar_position
Web Search & Extract	Search the web, extract page content, and crawl websites with multiple backend providers — including free self-hosted SearXNG.	Web Search	6

Web Search & Extract

Hermes Agent includes two model-callable web tools backed by multiple providers:

• web_search — search the web and return ranked results
• web_extract — fetch and extract readable content from one or more URLs (with built-in deep-crawl support when the backend provides it)

Both are configured through a single backend selection. Providers are chosen via hermes tools or set directly in config.yaml. Recursive crawling capabilities (Firecrawl/Tavily) are exposed through web_extract rather than as a separate web_crawl tool.

Backends

Provider	Env Var	Search	Extract	Crawl	Free tier
Firecrawl (default)	FIRECRAWL_API_KEY	✔	✔	✔	500 credits/mo
SearXNG	SEARXNG_URL	✔	—	—	✔ Free (self-hosted)
Tavily	TAVILY_API_KEY	✔	✔	✔	1 000 searches/mo
Exa	EXA_API_KEY	✔	✔	—	1 000 searches/mo
Parallel	PARALLEL_API_KEY	✔	✔	—	Paid

Per-capability split: you can use different providers for search and extract independently — for example SearXNG (free) for search and Firecrawl for extract. See Per-capability configuration below.

:::tip Nous Subscribers If you have a paid Nous Portal subscription, web search and extract are available through the Tool Gateway via managed Firecrawl — no API key needed. Run hermes tools to enable it. :::

---

How web_extract handles long pages

Backends return raw page markdown, which can be huge (forum threads, docs sites, news articles with embedded comments). To keep your context window usable and your costs down, web_extract runs returned content through the web_extract auxiliary model before handing it to the agent. Behavior is purely size-driven:

Page size (characters)	What happens
Under 5 000	Returned as-is — no LLM call, full markdown reaches the agent
5 000 – 500 000	Single-pass summary via the web_extract auxiliary model, capped at ~5 000 chars of output
500 000 – 2 000 000	Chunked: split into 100 k-char chunks, summarize each in parallel, then synthesize a final summary (~5 000 chars)
Over 2 000 000	Refused with a hint to use web_crawl with focused extraction instructions or a more specific source

The summary keeps quotes, code blocks, and key facts in their original formatting — it's a content compressor, not a paraphraser. If summarization fails or times out, Hermes falls back to the first ~5 000 chars of raw content rather than a useless error.

Which model does the summarizing?

The web_extract auxiliary task. By default (auxiliary.web_extract.provider: "auto"), this is your main chat model — same provider, same model as hermes model. That's fine for most setups, but on expensive reasoning models (Opus, MiniMax M2.7, etc.) every long-page extract adds meaningful cost.

To route extraction summaries to a cheap, fast model regardless of your main:

# ~/.hermes/config.yaml
auxiliary:
  web_extract:
    provider: openrouter
    model: google/gemini-3-flash-preview
    timeout: 360       # seconds; raise if you hit summarization timeouts

Or pick interactively: hermes model → Configure auxiliary models → web_extract.

See Auxiliary Models for the full reference and per-task override patterns.

When summarization gets in the way

If you specifically need raw, unsummarized page content — for example, you're scraping a structured page where the LLM summary would drop important fields — use browser_navigate + browser_snapshot instead. The browser tool returns the live accessibility tree without auxiliary-model rewriting (subject to its own 8 000-char snapshot cap on huge pages).

---

Setup

Quick setup via hermes tools

Run hermes tools, navigate to Web Search & Extract, and pick a provider. The wizard prompts for the required URL or API key and writes it to your config.

hermes tools

---

Firecrawl (default)

Full-featured search, extract, and crawl. Recommended for most users.

# ~/.hermes/.env
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=fc-your-key-here

Get a key at firecrawl.dev. The free tier includes 500 credits/month.

Self-hosted Firecrawl: Point at your own instance instead of the cloud API:

# ~/.hermes/.env
FIRECRAWL_API_URL=http://localhost:3002

When FIRECRAWL_API_URL is set, the API key is optional (disable server auth with USE_DB_AUTHENTICATION=false).

---

SearXNG (free, self-hosted)

SearXNG is a privacy-respecting, open-source metasearch engine that aggregates results from 70+ search engines. No API key required — just point Hermes at a running SearXNG instance.

SearXNG is search-only — web_extract (including its crawl modes) requires a separate extract provider.

Option A — Self-host with Docker (recommended)

This gives you a private instance with no rate limits.

1. Create a working directory:

mkdir -p ~/searxng/searxng
cd ~/searxng

2. Write a docker-compose.yml:

# ~/searxng/docker-compose.yml
services:
  searxng:
    image: searxng/searxng:latest
    container_name: searxng
    ports:
      - "8888:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./searxng:/etc/searxng:rw
    environment:
      - SEARXNG_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8888/
    restart: unless-stopped

3. Start the container:

docker compose up -d

4. Enable the JSON API format:

SearXNG ships with JSON output disabled by default. Copy the generated config and enable it:

# Copy the auto-generated config out of the container
docker cp searxng:/etc/searxng/settings.yml ~/searxng/searxng/settings.yml

Open ~/searxng/searxng/settings.yml and find the formats block (around line 84):

# Before (default — JSON disabled):
formats:
  - html

# After (enable JSON for Hermes):
formats:
  - html
  - json

5. Restart to apply:

docker cp ~/searxng/searxng/settings.yml searxng:/etc/searxng/settings.yml
docker restart searxng

6. Verify it works:

curl -s "http://localhost:8888/search?q=test&format=json" | python3 -c \
  "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(f'{len(d[\"results\"])} results')"

You should see something like 10 results. If you get a 403 Forbidden, JSON format is still disabled — recheck step 4.

7. Configure Hermes:

# ~/.hermes/.env
SEARXNG_URL=http://localhost:8888

Then select SearXNG as the search backend in ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

web:
  search_backend: "searxng"

Or set via hermes tools → Web Search & Extract → SearXNG.

---

Option B — Use a public instance

Public SearXNG instances are listed at searx.space. Filter by instances that have JSON format enabled (shown in the table).

# ~/.hermes/.env
SEARXNG_URL=https://searx.example.com

:::caution Public instances Public instances have rate limits, variable uptime, and may disable JSON format at any time. For production use, self-hosting is strongly recommended. :::

---

Pair SearXNG with an extract provider

SearXNG handles search; you need a separate provider for web_extract (including any deep-crawl modes). Use the per-capability keys:

# ~/.hermes/config.yaml
web:
  search_backend: "searxng"
  extract_backend: "firecrawl"   # or tavily, exa, parallel

With this config, Hermes uses SearXNG for all search queries and Firecrawl for URL extraction — combining free search with high-quality extraction.

---

Tavily

AI-optimised search, extract, and crawl with a generous free tier.

# ~/.hermes/.env
TAVILY_API_KEY=tvly-your-key-here

Get a key at app.tavily.com. The free tier includes 1 000 searches/month.

---

Exa

Neural search with semantic understanding. Good for research and finding conceptually related content.

# ~/.hermes/.env
EXA_API_KEY=your-exa-key-here

Get a key at exa.ai. The free tier includes 1 000 searches/month.

---

Parallel

AI-native search and extraction with deep research capabilities.

# ~/.hermes/.env
PARALLEL_API_KEY=your-parallel-key-here

Get access at parallel.ai.

---

Configuration

Single backend

Set one provider for all web capabilities:

# ~/.hermes/config.yaml
web:
  backend: "searxng"   # firecrawl | searxng | tavily | exa | parallel

Per-capability configuration

Use different providers for search vs extract. This lets you combine free search (SearXNG) with a paid extract provider, or vice versa:

# ~/.hermes/config.yaml
web:
  search_backend: "searxng"     # used by web_search
  extract_backend: "firecrawl"  # used by web_extract (and its deep-crawl modes)

When per-capability keys are empty, both fall through to web.backend. When web.backend is also empty, the backend is auto-detected from whichever API key/URL is present.

Priority order (per capability):

1. web.search_backend / web.extract_backend (explicit per-capability)
2. web.backend (shared fallback)
3. Auto-detect from environment variables

Auto-detection

If no backend is explicitly configured, Hermes picks the first available one based on which credentials are set:

Credential present	Auto-selected backend
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY or FIRECRAWL_API_URL	firecrawl
PARALLEL_API_KEY	parallel
TAVILY_API_KEY	tavily
EXA_API_KEY	exa
SEARXNG_URL	searxng

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Verify your setup

Run hermes setup to see which web backend is detected:

✅ Web Search & Extract (searxng)

Or check via the CLI:

# Activate the venv and run the web tools module directly
source ~/.hermes/hermes-agent/.venv/bin/activate
python -m tools.web_tools

This prints the active backend and its status:

✅ Web backend: searxng
   Using SearXNG (search only): http://localhost:8888

---

Troubleshooting

web_search returns {"success": false}

• Check SEARXNG_URL is reachable: curl -s "http://localhost:8888/search?q=test&format=json"
• If you get HTTP 403, JSON format is disabled — add json to the formats list in settings.yml and restart
• If you get a connection error, the container may not be running: docker ps | grep searxng

web_extract says "search-only backend"

SearXNG cannot extract URL content. Set web.extract_backend to a provider that supports extraction:

web:
  search_backend: "searxng"
  extract_backend: "firecrawl"  # or tavily / exa / parallel

SearXNG returns 0 results

Some public instances disable certain search engines or categories. Try:

• A different query
• A different public instance from searx.space
• Self-hosting your own instance for reliable results

Rate limited on a public instance

Switch to a self-hosted instance (see Option A above). With Docker, your own instance has no rate limits.

web_extract returns truncated content with a "summarization timed out" note

The auxiliary model didn't finish summarizing within the configured timeout. Either:

• Raise auxiliary.web_extract.timeout in config.yaml (default 360s on fresh installs, 30s if the key is missing)
• Switch the web_extract auxiliary task to a faster model (e.g. google/gemini-3-flash-preview) — see How web_extract handles long pages
• For pages where summarization is the wrong tool, use browser_navigate instead

---

Optional skill: searxng-search

For agents that need to use SearXNG via curl directly (e.g. as a fallback when the web toolset isn't available), install the searxng-search optional skill:

hermes skills install official/research/searxng-search

This adds a skill that teaches the agent how to:

• Call the SearXNG JSON API via curl or Python
• Filter by category (general, news, science, etc.)
• Handle pagination and error cases
• Fall back gracefully when SearXNG is unreachable