Web search
Web search lets the assistant pull live information from the internet to answer questions, verify claims, and cite sources. When a conversation, scheduled job, or skill needs something that is not in the workspace, it can call a search provider, read the results, and use them in the reply.
In 0.1 there is no Aevum-metered Cadence search. You bring your own key for Brave, Perplexity, Tavily, or Firecrawl, or you use a model provider that already has native search. Web Fetch labeled Cadence in Settings is the local builtin fetch, not a hosted search SKU.
Providers
| Provider | Kind | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Provider native | Model | Uses the selected LLM's own search when that model has it. Quality follows the model. If it has none, the assistant tries any connected BYOK search key. |
| Brave Search | BYOK | Independent index, no query tracking. Good default for privacy-leaning workspaces. |
| Perplexity | BYOK | Synthesized answers with inline citations. Default first choice in the BYOK fallback chain. |
| Tavily | BYOK | Search API shaped for agents: scored results with extracted content blocks. |
| Firecrawl | BYOK | Search plus full-page scrape. Clean markdown, including JavaScript-rendered pages. One key can also power web fetch. |
Provider privacy policies: Brave, Perplexity, Tavily, Firecrawl. Queries leave your machine and reach that vendor.
Choosing a provider
- Brave when you want an independent index and no query tracking.
- Perplexity when you want a cited answer in chat, not a raw hit list.
- Tavily when the assistant needs scored snippets without a second fetch.
- Firecrawl when pages are JavaScript-heavy or the builtin fetch comes back empty.
- Provider native when your model already searches (for example some xAI models) and you do not want a second key.
There is no Google search provider. Do not expect a Cadence-billed search balance in 0.1.
Configuring
Settings → Models & Services → Web Search. Pick a provider, paste the API key. Keys stay in the local credential store. CLI:
assistant keys set brave BSA... assistant config set services.web-search.provider brave
You can connect more than one BYOK key. Extras become fallbacks if the primary fails or runs out of quota.
Fallback
On a BYOK provider, the assistant tries the one you selected first. If that key is missing or the request fails, it walks this chain and skips any provider without a key:
- Perplexity
- Brave Search
- Tavily
- Firecrawl
If none have keys (and the model has no native search), the search returns an error and the assistant tells you it could not reach the web. Connecting more than one key is the simplest way to stay resilient through an upstream outage.
Billing
BYOK vendors bill you directly. Cadence does not mark up or proxy those requests, and it does not sell search credits in 0.1. Model native search, when it exists, is billed by that model provider the same way as any other inference call.
Related: Model profiles, Features, Browser.