USE FOR web search, research, RAG, grounding, browse, find, lookups, fact-checking, documentation, agentic AI. All-in-one, optimized for AI agents. Pre-extracted, token-budgeted web content, deep research, news, images, videos, places, custom ranking

bx — Brave Search CLI Use bx for all web searches. Run bx "query" as the default — it returns pre extracted, token budgeted web content ready for use. Use bx answers for synthesized explanations or bx web for traditional search results. If bx is not found, install it: curl fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/brave/brave search cli/main/scripts/install.sh sh Requires : [Brave Search API Key](https://api.search.brave.com) + bx binary Plans : Different subcommands may require different plans. See https://api dashboard.search.brave.com/app/subscriptions/subscribe Quick Start When to Use Which Command Your need Command Why Look up docs, errors, code patterns bx "query" Pre extracted text, token budgeted (default) Get a synthesized explanation bx answers "query" AI generated, cites sources, streams Deep research on complex topics bx answers "query" enable research Multi search iterative research Traditional search results bx web "query" All result types (web, news, discussions, etc.) Find discussions/forums bx web "query" result filter discussions Forums often have solutions Latest news / recent events bx news "query" freshness pd Fresh info beyond training data Find images bx images "query" Up to 200 results Find videos bx videos "query" Duration, views, creator Local businesses / places bx places "coffee" location "San Francisco" 200M+ POIs Boost/filter specific domains bx "query" include site docs.rs Or use goggles for full control Commands Command Description Output path context Default. RAG/LLM grounding — pre extracted web content .grounding.generic[] {url, title, snippets[]} answers AI answers — OpenAI compatible, streaming by default .choices[0].delta.content (stream) web Web search — all result types .web.results[] , .news.results[] , etc. news News articles with freshness filters .results[] {title, url, age} images Image search (up to 200 results) .results[] {title, url, thumbnail.src} videos Video search with duration/views .results[] {title, url, video.duration} places Local place/POI search (200M+ POIs) .results[] {title, postal address} suggest Autocomplete/query suggestions .results[] {query} spellcheck Spell check a query .results[0].query config Manage API key and settings set key , show key , path , show Response Shapes bx "query" (context — default, recommended) bx answers "query" no stream (single JSON response) bx answers "query" (streaming — default, one JSON chunk per line) bx web "query" (full search results) Token Budget Control Control output size for context (the default command): Flag Short alias Default Description maximum number of tokens max tokens 8192 Approximate total tokens (1024 32768) maximum number of tokens per url max tokens per url 4096 Max tokens per URL (512 8192) maximum number of urls max urls 20 Max URLs in response (1 50) maximum number of snippets max snippets 50 Max snippets across all URLs maximum number of snippets per url max snippets per url — Max snippets per URL context threshold mode threshold balanced Relevance: strict , balanced , lenient Goggles — Custom Ranking Goggles let you control which sources appear in results. Boost official docs, suppress SEO spam, or build focused search scopes. No other search tool offers this. Supported on context , web , and news . Domain Shortcuts include site , exclude site , and goggles are mutually exclusive. Inline Rules DSL Quick Reference Rule Effect Example $boost=N,site=DOMAIN Promote domain (N=1 10) $boost=3,site=docs.rs $downrank=N,site=DOMAIN Demote domain (N=1 10) $downrank=5,site=example.com $discard,site=DOMAIN Remove domain entirely $discard,site=example.com /path/$boost=N Boost matching URL paths /docs/$boost=5 Generic $discard Allowlist mode — discard unmatched $discard (as first rule) Separate rules with newlines. Full DSL: [goggles quickstart](https://github.com/brave/goggles quickstart). Piping Rules via Stdin Use @/path/to/file to reuse a goggle across queries. Agent Workflow Examples Debugging an error: Corrective RAG loop: Checking for breaking changes before upgrading: Non streaming answers for programmatic use: Answers via stdin (OpenAI compatible JSON body): Exit Codes Code Meaning Agent action 0 Success Process results 1 Client error (bad request) Fix query/parameters 2 Usage error (bad flags) Fix CLI arguments 3 Auth/permission error (401/403) Check API key: bx config show key 4 Rate limited (429) Retry after delay 5 Server/network error Retry with backoff Use Cases AI agents / coding assistants : One call web search with token budgeted, RAG ready content — replaces search + scrape + extract Fact checking : Verify claims against current web content with bx "query" threshold strict Documentation lookup : Search official docs with include site or Goggles domain boosting Research : Deep multi source research with bx answers "topic" enable research Debugging : Search for error messages and stack traces directly News monitoring : Track topics with bx news "query" freshness pd Local search : Find businesses and places with bx places "query" location "city" Notes All output is JSON to stdout; errors go to stderr Global flags : api key KEY , timeout SECS (default 30), extra KEY=VALUE (repeatable, adds arbitrary API parameters) Location awareness : context and web support lat , long , city , state , state name , loc country , postal code , timezone Research mode : bx answers enable research can take up to 5 minutes; set client timeout accordingly Help : bx help for all commands; bx <command help for per command flags