Google Search 🔍

Google web search powered by Gemini 2.5 Flash with Search Grounding + Custom Search API.

⭐ This is the PRIMARY web search tool. Prefer over built-in web_search (Perplexity).

Requirements

GOOGLE_API_KEY environment variable
Enable in Google Cloud Console: Gemini API, Custom Search JSON API

Configuration

| Env Variable | Default | Description | |---|---|---| | GOOGLE_API_KEY | — | Required. Google API key | | GOOGLE_CSE_CX | — | Custom Search Engine ID (required for raw/image modes) | | GOOGLE_SEARCH_LANG | he | Default language code (he, en, ar, ja, etc.) | | GOOGLE_SEARCH_COUNTRY | IL | Default country code (IL, US, DE, etc.) |

Set in OpenClaw config:

{
  "env": {
    "GOOGLE_API_KEY": "AIza...",
    "GOOGLE_SEARCH_LANG": "he",
    "GOOGLE_SEARCH_COUNTRY": "IL"
  }
}

Script Location

python3 skills/google-search/lib/google_search.py <mode> "query" [options]

Output Modes

Text mode (default): Best for most use cases. Clean readable output with answer, sources, and search queries.
JSON mode (--json): For programmatic processing. Includes confidence scores, grounding supports, and search queries.

Modes

search — Grounded Search (Default, Recommended)

Gemini 2.0 Flash + Google Search tool → synthesized answer with numbered citations.

python3 lib/google_search.py search "query" [--lang he] [--country IL] [--json]

When to use: Questions, current events, "what is X", Hebrew queries, anything needing a direct answer.

Examples:

# Hebrew (default)
python3 lib/google_search.py search "מזג אוויר תל אביב"

# English override
python3 lib/google_search.py search "latest AI news" --lang en --country US

# JSON output
python3 lib/google_search.py search "OpenAI GPT-5 release date" --json

Output format:

<Synthesized answer text>

Sources:
  1. Source Title
     https://example.com/article
  2. Another Source
     https://example.com/other

raw — Raw Search Results

Custom Search JSON API → links with titles and snippets.

python3 lib/google_search.py raw "query" [-n 5] [--lang he] [--country IL] [--json]

When to use: Need actual URLs, research, building reference lists, when you want links not answers.

Examples:

python3 lib/google_search.py raw "python asyncio tutorial" -n 5
python3 lib/google_search.py raw "best restaurants tel aviv" --json
python3 lib/google_search.py raw "rust vs go performance" -n 3 --lang en

Output format:

1. Page Title
   https://example.com/page
   Brief snippet from the page...

2. Another Page
   https://example.com/other
   Another snippet...

image — Image Search

Custom Search image search → image URLs with titles.

python3 lib/google_search.py image "query" [-n 5] [--lang he] [--country IL] [--json]

When to use: Finding images, visual references, thumbnails.

Examples:

python3 lib/google_search.py image "aurora borealis" -n 5
python3 lib/google_search.py image "תל אביב חוף" --json

Options Reference

| Option | Applies To | Description | Default | |---|---|---|---| | --lang CODE | all | Language code (he, en, ar, ja…) | env GOOGLE_SEARCH_LANG (he) | | --country CODE | all | Country code (IL, US, DE…) | env GOOGLE_SEARCH_COUNTRY (IL) | | -n NUM | raw, image | Number of results (1–10) | 10 | | --json | all | Structured JSON output | off |

Language resolution order: --lang flag → GOOGLE_SEARCH_LANG env → None (auto) Country resolution order: --country flag → GOOGLE_SEARCH_COUNTRY env → None (auto)

Error Handling

Missing API key: Clear error message with setup instructions.
429 Rate Limit: Automatic retry once after 5-second wait.
Network errors: Descriptive error with cause.
No results: Clean "No results found." message.
Timeout: 30-second timeout on all HTTP requests.

Quota & Rate Limits

| API | Free Tier | Rate Limit | |---|---|---| | Gemini API (grounded search) | Generous free tier | ~15 RPM (free), higher on paid | | Custom Search JSON API (raw/image) | 100 queries/day | 10K queries/day (paid) |

On 429 errors: Script retries once automatically. If quota exhausted, fall back to built-in web_search (Perplexity).

Multilingual Support

Works with queries in any language. Hebrew is the default:

# Hebrew (default, no flags needed)
python3 lib/google_search.py search "חדשות טכנולוגיה"

# English
python3 lib/google_search.py search "technology news" --lang en

# Arabic
python3 lib/google_search.py search "أخبار التكنولوجيا" --lang ar

Install

bash skills/google-search/install.sh