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How to add web search to your AI

Short answer: In Assistant and Writer mode, web search already works: it defaults to DuckDuckGo, which needs no key. In other modes, turn on the External Research skill from Chat Configuration; to switch providers or add a Brave key, use Chat Configuration → Settings → Internet Search.

Steps

  1. If your chat is in Assistant or Writer mode, web search is already on; skip to step 4.
  2. In another mode, click the mode pill above the compose box to open Chat Configuration, go to Capabilities, and turn on the External Research skill for just this chat, or save it into a mode. (Chat Only mode has no tools at all, so it can’t be added there.)
  3. The skill also covers search_wikipedia and search_github, so turning it on gets you more than web search alone.
  4. To switch providers, open Chat Configuration → Settings → Internet Search, and set “Internet text provider” to Brave for richer results (DuckDuckGo stays the free, keyless default).
  5. Brave needs an API key: open the app menu → Integrations, find the Brave Search row, paste your key, and save. Web search keeps working through DuckDuckGo if you never add one.

Notes & gotchas

  • In modes that don’t ship External Research by default, the AI can still pull it in mid-conversation on its own when a question needs it; you don’t have to turn it on in advance every time, except in Chat Only mode.
  • The number of searches per reply defaults to 10 and can be raised to 100, in Chat Configuration → Settings → Per-Response Limits → “Max web searches.”
  • Fetched pages and search snippets are treated as untrusted content, so a malicious page can’t pass itself off as an instruction.
  • A model without tool support (or a Chat Only chat) shows a plain “you do not currently have internet access” note instead of searching.
  • web_fetch_then_query embeds a long page and returns just the sections relevant to your question, instead of the whole body.