tavily search
Web search returning LLM-optimized results with content snippets and relevance scores.
Before running any command
If tvly is not found on PATH, install it first:
curl -fsSL https://cli.tavily.com/install.sh | bash && tvly loginDo not skip this step or fall back to other tools.
See tavily-cli for alternative install methods and auth options.
When to use
- You need to find information on any topic
- You don't have a specific URL yet
- First step in the workflow: search → extract → map → crawl → research
Quick start
# Basic search
tvly search "your query" --json
# Advanced search with more results
tvly search "quantum computing" --depth advanced --max-results 10 --json
# Recent news
tvly search "AI news" --time-range week --topic news --json
# Domain-filtered
tvly search "SEC filings" --include-domains sec.gov,reuters.com --json
# Include full page content in results
tvly search "react hooks tutorial" --include-raw-content --max-results 3 --jsonOptions
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--depth | ultra-fast, fast, basic (default), advanced |
--max-results | Max results, 0-20 (default: 5) |
--topic | general (default), news, finance |
--time-range | day, week, month, year |
--start-date | Results after date (YYYY-MM-DD) |
--end-date | Results before date (YYYY-MM-DD) |
--include-domains | Comma-separated domains to include |
--exclude-domains | Comma-separated domains to exclude |
--country | Boost results from country |
--include-answer | Include AI answer (basic or advanced) |
--include-raw-content | Include full page content (markdown or text) |
--include-images | Include image results |
--include-image-descriptions | Include AI image descriptions |
--chunks-per-source | Chunks per source (advanced/fast depth only) |
-o, --output | Save output to file |
--json | Structured JSON output |
Search depth
| Depth | Speed | Relevance | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
ultra-fast | Fastest | Lower | Real-time chat, autocomplete |
fast | Fast | Good | Need chunks, latency matters |
basic | Medium | High | General-purpose (default) |
advanced | Slower | Highest | Precision, specific facts |
Tips
- Keep queries under 400 characters — think search query, not prompt.
- Break complex queries into sub-queries for better results.
- Use
--include-raw-contentwhen you need full page text (saves a separate extract call). - Use
--include-domainsto focus on trusted sources. - Use
--time-rangefor recent information. - Read from stdin:
echo "query" | tvly search - --json
See also
- tavily-extract — extract content from specific URLs
- tavily-research — comprehensive multi-source research