Parallel Search

High-accuracy web search built for AI agents. Returns ranked results with intelligent excerpts optimized for LLM consumption.

When to Use

Trigger this skill when the user asks for:

• "search the web", "web search", "look up", "find online"
• "current news about...", "latest updates on..."
• "research [topic]", "what's happening with..."
• Fact-checking with citations needed
• Domain-specific searches (e.g., "search GitHub for...", "find on Reddit...")

Quick Start

parallel-cli search "your query" --json --max-results 5

CLI Reference

Basic Usage

parallel-cli search "<objective>" [options]

Common Flags

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | -q, --query "<keyword>" | Add keyword filter (repeatable, 3-8 recommended) | | --max-results N | Number of results (1-20, default: 10) | | --json | Output as JSON | | --after-date YYYY-MM-DD | Filter for recent content | | --include-domains domain.com | Limit to specific domains (repeatable, max 10) | | --exclude-domains domain.com | Exclude domains (repeatable, max 10) | | --excerpt-max-chars-total N | Limit total excerpt size (default: 8000) |

Examples

Basic search:

parallel-cli search "When was the United Nations founded?" --json --max-results 5

With keyword filters:

parallel-cli search "Latest developments in quantum computing" \
  -q "quantum" -q "computing" -q "2026" \
  --json --max-results 10

Domain-scoped search:

parallel-cli search "React hooks best practices" \
  --include-domains react.dev --include-domains github.com \
  --json --max-results 5

Recent news only:

parallel-cli search "AI regulation news" \
  --after-date 2026-01-01 \
  --json --max-results 10

Best-Practice Prompting

Objective

Write 1-3 sentences describing:

• The real task context (why you need the info)
• Freshness constraints ("prefer 2026+", "latest docs")
• Preferred sources ("official docs", "news sites")

Keyword Queries

Add 3-8 keyword queries including:

• Specific terms, version numbers, error strings
• Common synonyms
• Date terms if relevant ("2026", "Jan 2026")

Response Format

Returns structured JSON with:

• search_id — unique identifier
• results[] — array of results:
  • url — source URL
  • title — page title
  • excerpts[] — relevant text excerpts
  • publish_date — when available

Output Handling

When turning results into a user-facing answer:

• Prefer official/primary sources when possible
• Quote or paraphrase only the relevant extracted text
• Include URL + publish_date for transparency
• If results disagree, present both and note the discrepancy

Running Out of Context?

For long conversations, save results and use sessions_spawn:

parallel-cli search "<query>" --json -o /tmp/search-<topic>.json

Then spawn a sub-agent:

{
  "tool": "sessions_spawn",
  "task": "Read /tmp/search-<topic>.json and synthesize a summary with sources.",
  "label": "search-summary"
}

Error Handling

| Exit Code | Meaning | |-----------|---------| | 0 | Success | | 1 | Unexpected error (network, parse) | | 2 | Invalid arguments | | 3 | API error (non-2xx) |

Prerequisites

Requires parallel-cli (installed and authenticated). If parallel-cli --version fails, or if a later command fails with an authentication error, tell the user to see https://docs.parallel.ai/integrations/cli and stop.

References

• API Docs
• Search API Reference