Provider-native web search for pi with Gemini + URL Context, xAI Grok, OpenAI Responses variants, Anthropic, Ollama Cloud, and OpenCode Zen/Go.
Search the web using your currently selected model. Automatically picks the right provider API:
| Provider | API |
|---|---|
| Google Gemini | Grounding with Google Search |
| xAI Grok | Responses API web_search |
| OpenAI | Responses API web search |
| Azure OpenAI | Responses API web search (azure-openai-responses) |
| OpenAI Codex | Codex Responses API web search (openai-codex-responses) |
| GitHub Copilot | OpenAI Responses API web search via Copilot credentials |
| Anthropic | Messages API web search |
| Ollama Cloud | Ollama web search API (/api/web_search, standalone REST) |
| OpenCode Zen / Go | Responses API web search (models that use the openai-responses API) |
GitHub Copilot OpenAI Responses models are supported, including Business and Enterprise seats whose API endpoint is resolved from their authenticated Copilot credentials. This includes models such as gpt-5.6-sol.
OpenCode Zen and OpenCode Go Responses models (for example opencode-go/gpt-5.6-luna or opencode-go/grok-4.6) use the same Responses web search. OpenCode routes traffic per conversation, so web_search sends the x-opencode-session and x-opencode-client headers pi uses, keyed to the active session. Only models exposed through that Responses API are supported: OpenCode chat/completions models have no provider-native search tool, and the gateway's Anthropic Messages models are unverified.
Ollama Cloud models (provider ollama-cloud or any model hosted on ollama.com) call Ollama's standalone web search API rather than a model tool. Auth is OLLAMA_API_KEY or /login ollama-cloud. Any urls are fetched through web_fetch. A local Ollama daemon is out of scope — the official @ollama/pi-web-search package covers its /api/experimental/* endpoints.
Supports passing up to 20 additional URLs to analyze alongside the query. Successful web_search results are collapsed by default in pi; expand the tool call to inspect the full answer and source details.
Gemini and Ollama Cloud. Analyze up to 20 public URLs — web pages, documents, images, and YouTube videos. Gemini uses native URL Context retrieval with verified metadata; Ollama uses its web_fetch endpoint (web pages and documents only).
When using google-generative-ai, YouTube URLs are passed as file_data for native video understanding.
pi install npm:pi-web-searchNo extra config needed. Select a supported current model in pi and the tools auto-detect the matching provider API.
web_search will not scan configured models and pick one automatically when the current model does not support native search. To use a dedicated search model, opt in explicitly with web-search.json in pi's agent directory (by default ~/.pi/agent/; respects PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR):
{
"provider": "openai",
"model": "gpt-5.1"
}When this file exists, web_search uses the configured provider/model first. If it is missing, web_search uses the current conversation model. If the selected model does not support native search, the tool returns an error instead of falling back.
For OpenAI Responses models (including Azure, Codex, and Copilot), web_search inherits the agent's current thinking level on each call. Enabled levels are clamped to the selected search model's supported levels and translated through its thinkingLevelMap using pi's model metadata. This also applies when web-search.json selects a dedicated search model. Higher effort can increase latency and cost.
When thinking is off or unavailable, or the search model is non-reasoning, the request omits reasoning and leaves the choice to the provider. Off does not force reasoning off: some models reject reasoning.effort: "none". Google, Anthropic, xAI, and Ollama behavior is unchanged.
url_context is automatically removed from active tools when using a model that supports neither Gemini URL Context nor Ollama web fetch.
cp .env.example .env # edit with your models
npm test # unit tests
npm run test:real:web-search
npm run test:real:url-contextMIT