NASOpenClawRunTime/skills/tavily-web-search-for-openclaw/README.md

Tavily Web Search Skill for OpenClaw 🦀

A lightweight Tavily web search skill for OpenClaw that works without pip and without third-party Python packages.

This skill is designed for minimal Linux environments such as:

• Raspberry Pi
• Ubuntu Server
• small VPS setups
• systems where installing Python packages is unavailable, restricted, or intentionally avoided

Instead of using the tavily-python SDK, this skill calls the Tavily REST API directly using Python's standard library.

Features

• Tavily web search through direct REST API calls
• No pip install required
• No external Python dependencies
• Works well on Raspberry Pi and Ubuntu Server
• Supports general search and news search
• Supports answer summaries, images, and domain filtering
• Easy to integrate into OpenClaw skills
• Simple secret-file based API key setup

Why this version exists

The official Tavily Python SDK is convenient, but some environments do not have a practical or desirable pip workflow.

This skill exists for setups where you want:

• a small footprint
• no package installation step
• predictable deployment
• compatibility with minimal server environments
• a solution that keeps working even on systems where Python package installation is restricted

This is especially useful on Raspberry Pi, Ubuntu Server, and other minimal Linux systems where you may prefer to avoid virtual environments, extra package managers, or external Python dependencies for a simple search integration.

Folder Structure

skills/tavily/
├── SKILL.md
├── .secrets/
│   └── tavily.key
└── scripts/
    └── tavily_search.py

Secret Setup

Create the secret directory:

mkdir -p skills/tavily/.secrets
chmod 700 skills/tavily/.secrets

Create the key file:

nano skills/tavily/.secrets/tavily.key

The file must contain only your raw Tavily API key:

tvly-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Do not write:

TAVILY_API_KEY=tvly-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Set permissions:

chmod 600 skills/tavily/.secrets/tavily.key

Usage

Basic search:

python3 skills/tavily/scripts/tavily_search.py --query "latest AI news"

News-focused search:

python3 skills/tavily/scripts/tavily_search.py --query "gold prices" --topic news

Advanced search:

python3 skills/tavily/scripts/tavily_search.py --query "raspberry pi ubuntu server optimization" --depth advanced

JSON output:

python3 skills/tavily/scripts/tavily_search.py --query "python asyncio" --json

Supported Options

Option	Description
--query	required search query
--topic	general or news
--depth	basic or advanced
--max-results	number of results
--no-answer	disable answer summary
--raw-content	include parsed raw content
--images	include image results
--include-domains	restrict to selected domains
--exclude-domains	filter out selected domains
--json	output raw JSON

OpenClaw Integration

This skill is meant to be used from OpenClaw through SKILL.md.

Typical usage flow:

1. The user asks for web search or recent information
2. OpenClaw invokes the Tavily skill
3. The skill runs scripts/tavily_search.py
4. The script reads the API key from .secrets/tavily.key
5. Results are returned in a format suitable for summarization

Why no pip is required

This project intentionally avoids the Tavily Python SDK and other third-party dependencies.

That means:

• there is no pip install step
• there is no dependency on tavily-python
• there is no virtual environment requirement just to use the skill
• deployment stays simple on minimal systems

The script uses only Python's standard library to call the Tavily REST API directly.

Security Notes

• The .secrets directory should never be committed
• Your API key should stay only on the target machine
• This repository should contain code and documentation only
• Add .secrets/ to .gitignore
• Keep tavily.key readable only by the user or service that runs the skill

Example .gitignore entries:

.secrets/
__pycache__/
*.pyc

Requirements

• Python 3
• Network access to Tavily API
• A valid Tavily API key
• No additional Python packages are required

Motivation

This project is especially useful for:

• Raspberry Pi home server setups
• Ubuntu Server deployments
• minimal VPS environments
• offline-managed or tightly controlled systems
• users who want Tavily search without SDK installation
• environments where pip is unavailable, restricted, or intentionally avoided

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.