Agent skill
tavily-best-practices
Build production-ready Tavily integrations with best practices baked in. Reference documentation for developers using coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) to implement web search, content extraction, crawling, and research in agentic workflows, RAG systems, or autonomous agents.
Install this agent skill to your Project
npx add-skill https://github.com/tavily-ai/skills/tree/main/skills/tavily-best-practices
SKILL.md
Tavily
Tavily is a search API designed for LLMs, enabling AI applications to access real-time web data.
Installation
Python:
pip install tavily-python
JavaScript:
npm install @tavily/core
See references/sdk.md for complete SDK reference.
Client Initialization
from tavily import TavilyClient
# Uses TAVILY_API_KEY env var (recommended)
client = TavilyClient()
#With project tracking (for usage organization)
client = TavilyClient(project_id="your-project-id")
# Async client for parallel queries
from tavily import AsyncTavilyClient
async_client = AsyncTavilyClient()
Choosing the Right Method
For custom agents/workflows:
| Need | Method |
|---|---|
| Web search results | search() |
| Content from specific URLs | extract() |
| Content from entire site | crawl() |
| URL discovery from site | map() |
For out-of-the-box research:
| Need | Method |
|---|---|
| End-to-end research with AI synthesis | research() |
Quick Reference
search() - Web Search
response = client.search(
query="quantum computing breakthroughs", # Keep under 400 chars
max_results=10,
search_depth="advanced"
)
print(response)
Key parameters: query, max_results, search_depth (ultra-fast/fast/basic/advanced), include_domains, exclude_domains, time_range
See references/search.md for complete search reference.
extract() - URL Content Extraction
# Simple one-step extraction
response = client.extract(
urls=["https://docs.example.com"],
extract_depth="advanced"
)
print(response)
Key parameters: urls (max 20), extract_depth, query, chunks_per_source (1-5)
See references/extract.md for complete extract reference.
crawl() - Site-Wide Extraction
response = client.crawl(
url="https://docs.example.com",
instructions="Find API documentation pages", # Semantic focus
extract_depth="advanced"
)
print(response)
Key parameters: url, max_depth, max_breadth, limit, instructions, chunks_per_source, select_paths, exclude_paths
See references/crawl.md for complete crawl reference.
map() - URL Discovery
response = client.map(
url="https://docs.example.com"
)
print(response)
research() - AI-Powered Research
import time
# For comprehensive multi-topic research
result = client.research(
input="Analyze competitive landscape for X in SMB market",
model="pro" # or "mini" for focused queries, "auto" when unsure
)
request_id = result["request_id"]
# Poll until completed
response = client.get_research(request_id)
while response["status"] not in ["completed", "failed"]:
time.sleep(10)
response = client.get_research(request_id)
print(response["content"]) # The research report
Key parameters: input, model ("mini"/"pro"/"auto"), stream, output_schema, citation_format
See references/research.md for complete research reference.
Detailed Guides
For complete parameters, response fields, patterns, and examples:
- references/sdk.md - Python & JavaScript SDK reference, async patterns, Hybrid RAG
- references/search.md - Query optimization, search depth selection, domain filtering, async patterns, post-filtering
- references/extract.md - One-step vs two-step extraction, query/chunks for targeting, advanced mode
- references/crawl.md - Crawl vs Map, instructions for semantic focus, use cases, Map-then-Extract pattern
- references/research.md - Prompting best practices, model selection, streaming, structured output schemas
- references/integrations.md - LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, Vercel AI SDK, and framework integrations
Recommended Agent Skills
Expand your agent's capabilities with these related and highly-rated skills.
tavily-search
Search the web with LLM-optimized results via the Tavily CLI. Use this skill when the user wants to search the web, find articles, look up information, get recent news, discover sources, or says "search for", "find me", "look up", "what's the latest on", "find articles about", or needs current information from the internet. Returns relevant results with content snippets, relevance scores, and metadata — optimized for LLM consumption. Supports domain filtering, time ranges, and multiple search depths.
tavily-map
Discover and list all URLs on a website without extracting content, via the Tavily CLI. Use this skill when the user wants to find a specific page on a large site, list all URLs, see the site structure, find where something is on a domain, or says "map the site", "find the URL for", "what pages are on", "list all pages", or "site structure". Faster than crawling — returns URLs only. Essential when you know the site but not the exact page. Combine with extract for targeted content retrieval.
tavily-crawl
Crawl websites and extract content from multiple pages via the Tavily CLI. Use this skill when the user wants to crawl a site, download documentation, extract an entire docs section, bulk-extract pages, save a site as local markdown files, or says "crawl", "get all the pages", "download the docs", "extract everything under /docs", "bulk extract", or needs content from many pages on the same domain. Supports depth/breadth control, path filtering, semantic instructions, and saving each page as a local markdown file.
tavily-research
Conduct comprehensive AI-powered research with citations via the Tavily CLI. Use this skill when the user wants deep research, a detailed report, a comparison, market analysis, literature review, or says "research", "investigate", "analyze in depth", "compare X vs Y", "what does the market look like for", or needs multi-source synthesis with explicit citations. Returns a structured report grounded in web sources. Takes 30-120 seconds. For quick fact-finding, use tavily-search instead.
tavily-cli
Web search, content extraction, crawling, and deep research via the Tavily CLI. Use this skill whenever the user wants to search the web, find articles, research a topic, look something up online, extract content from a URL, grab text from a webpage, crawl documentation, download a site's pages, discover URLs on a domain, or conduct in-depth research with citations. Also use when they say "fetch this page", "pull the content from", "get the page at https://", "find me articles about", or reference extracting data from external websites. This provides LLM-optimized web search, content extraction, site crawling, URL discovery, and AI-powered deep research — capabilities beyond what agents can do natively. Do NOT trigger for local file operations, git commands, deployments, or code editing tasks.
tavily-extract
Extract clean markdown or text content from specific URLs via the Tavily CLI. Use this skill when the user has one or more URLs and wants their content, says "extract", "grab the content from", "pull the text from", "get the page at", "read this webpage", or needs clean text from web pages. Handles JavaScript-rendered pages, returns LLM-optimized markdown, and supports query-focused chunking for targeted extraction. Can process up to 20 URLs in a single call.
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