#How to set up web search

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sleek zenith
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Its running into issues and errors no matter what

wanton lynxBOT
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round thicketBOT
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Web search setup is usually one of these three things: missing API key, tool not allowlisted, or the gateway service isn’t seeing your env vars.

Can you paste (1) your openclaw --version and (2) the exact error text you’re seeing?

In the meantime, here’s the “known-good” checklist for web_search:

  1. Configure web search (recommended path)
openclaw configure --section web
openclaw gateway restart
  1. Make sure you actually have a search API key
  • web_search needs a key (Brave/Gemini/Grok/Kimi/Perplexity).
  • web_fetch does not need a key.

Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/web

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  1. If you’re running the gateway as a service, put the key in ~/.openclaw/.env
    Service runs often don’t inherit your shell env. Example:
BRAVE_API_KEY=...

Then:

openclaw gateway restart
  1. If you use tool allowlists, allow web tools
    Make sure your agent has either group:web or web_search / web_fetch in tools.allow (not web.fetch / web.search etc).

FAQ section (includes a config snippet + key names):
https://docs.openclaw.ai/help/faq#how-do-i-enable-web-search-and-web-fetch

If you paste: