Agent skill

perplexity

Perplexity API for AI search. Use when user mentions "Perplexity", "AI search", or asks to search with citations.

View SKILL.md on GitHub Repository
Stars 50
Forks 8

Install this agent skill to your Project

npx add-skill https://github.com/vm0-ai/vm0-skills/tree/main/perplexity

SKILL.md

Perplexity AI

AI search engine that provides real-time web-grounded answers with source citations. Unlike traditional search, Perplexity synthesizes information from multiple sources into coherent responses.

Official docs: https://docs.perplexity.ai/

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

  • Get real-time information with source citations
  • Research topics that require up-to-date web data
  • Answer complex questions that need multi-source synthesis
  • Perform academic or SEC filings research
  • Get AI-generated summaries grounded in current web content

Prerequisites

  1. Create an account at https://perplexity.ai/
  2. Navigate to API settings: https://perplexity.ai/account/api
  3. Generate an API key

Set environment variable:

bash
export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="pplx-your-api-key"

How to Use

1. Chat Completions (Recommended)

AI-powered Q&A with web search and citations. OpenAI SDK compatible.

Basic query with sonar model:

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "model": "sonar",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "user", "content": "What is the current price of Bitcoin?"}
  ]
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

With system prompt:

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "model": "sonar",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "system", "content": "Be precise and concise. Answer in bullet points."},
    {"role": "user", "content": "What are the latest developments in AI?"}
  ]
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

Advanced query with sonar-pro:

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "model": "sonar-pro",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "user", "content": "Compare the latest iPhone and Samsung Galaxy flagship phones"}
  ],
  "temperature": 0.2,
  "web_search_options": {
    "search_context_size": "high"
  }
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

2. Search with Domain Filter

Limit search to specific domains.

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "model": "sonar",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "user", "content": "Latest research on transformer architectures"}
  ],
  "search_domain_filter": ["arxiv.org", "openai.com", "anthropic.com"]
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

Exclude domains (add - prefix):

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "model": "sonar",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "user", "content": "Best programming practices"}
  ],
  "search_domain_filter": ["-reddit.com", "-quora.com"]
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

3. Search with Time Filter

Filter by recency.

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "model": "sonar",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "user", "content": "Major tech news"}
  ],
  "search_recency_filter": "week"
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

Filter by date range:

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "model": "sonar",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "user", "content": "AI announcements"}
  ],
  "search_after_date_filter": "12/01/2024",
  "search_before_date_filter": "12/31/2024"
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

4. Academic Search

Search academic sources.

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "model": "sonar",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "user", "content": "Recent papers on large language model alignment"}
  ],
  "search_mode": "academic"
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

5. Raw Search API

Get raw search results without AI synthesis.

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "query": "Claude AI Anthropic",
  "max_results": 5
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/search" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

With domain and time filters:

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "query": "machine learning tutorials",
  "max_results": 10,
  "search_domain_filter": ["github.com", "medium.com"],
  "search_recency_filter": "month",
  "country": "US"
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/search" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

6. Deep Research (Long-form)

For comprehensive research reports.

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "model": "sonar-deep-research",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "user", "content": "Write a comprehensive analysis of the electric vehicle market in 2024"}
  ],
  "reasoning_effort": "high"
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

7. Reasoning Model

For complex problem-solving.

Write to /tmp/perplexity_request.json:

json
{
  "model": "sonar-reasoning-pro",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "user", "content": "Analyze the pros and cons of microservices vs monolithic architecture for a startup"}
  ]
}

Then run:

bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions" --header "Authorization: Bearer $(printenv PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/perplexity_request.json

Models

Model Description Best For
sonar Lightweight, cost-effective Quick facts, news, simple Q&A
sonar-pro Advanced search, deeper understanding Complex queries, detailed research
sonar-reasoning-pro Multi-step reasoning with search Problem-solving, analysis
sonar-deep-research Exhaustive research, reports Academic research, market analysis

Response Format

Chat completions return:

json
{
  "id": "uuid",
  "model": "sonar",
  "choices": [
  {
  "message": {
  "role": "assistant",
  "content": "The answer with [1] citations..."
  }
  }
  ],
  "citations": ["https://source1.com", "https://source2.com"],
  "search_results": [
  {
  "title": "Source Title",
  "url": "https://source.com",
  "snippet": "Relevant excerpt..."
  }
  ],
  "usage": {
  "prompt_tokens": 10,
  "completion_tokens": 150,
  "total_tokens": 160
  }
}

Guidelines

  1. Model Selection: Use sonar for simple queries, sonar-pro for complex ones
  2. Cost Optimization: Lower search_context_size reduces costs (low/medium/high)
  3. Domain Filters: Limit to 20 domains max; use - prefix to exclude
  4. Recency Filters: Options are day, week, month, year
  5. Temperature: Lower (0.1-0.3) for factual queries, higher for creative
  6. Rate Limits: Vary by tier; check https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/rate-limits-usage-tiers
  7. Citations: Response includes numbered citations [1] that map to citations array

Recommended Agent Skills

Expand your agent's capabilities with these related and highly-rated skills.

vm0-ai/vm0-skills

brave-search

Brave Search API for web search. Use when user says "search web", "Brave search", or asks to "find on web" without specifying Google.

50 8
Explore
vm0-ai/vm0-skills

supadata

Supadata API for YouTube/web data. Use when user mentions "Supadata", "YouTube data", "channel stats", or web scraping data.

50 8
Explore
vm0-ai/vm0-skills

roadmap-planning

Build and prioritize product roadmaps using scoring models like RICE, ICE, and value-effort matrices. Activate when creating a product roadmap, prioritizing features, sequencing initiatives, mapping dependencies, balancing team capacity, choosing between Now/Next/Later or quarterly planning, or communicating roadmap tradeoffs to executives and stakeholders.

50 8
Explore
vm0-ai/vm0-skills

qdrant

Qdrant API for vector search. Use when user mentions "Qdrant", "vector database", "semantic search", or embeddings storage.

50 8
Explore
vm0-ai/vm0-skills

calendly

Calendly scheduling API. Use when user mentions "Calendly", "calendly.com", "schedule a meeting", "booking link", "event types", or asks about interview scheduling.

50 8
Explore
vm0-ai/vm0-skills

stripe

Stripe API for payments. Use when user mentions "Stripe", "payment", "subscription", "billing", "invoice", or asks about payment processing.

50 8
Explore

Didn't find tool you were looking for?

Be as detailed as possible for better results