Web research

Agents can search and read the public web when an Agentic Web Research service is configured. The integration is entirely optional and disabled by default.

Enable it

The tools appear only when both variables are present in the control-plane environment:

AWR_BASE_URL=https://research.example.com
AWR_API_KEY=awr_...

Add both keys to your existing Secret and restart the control plane:

kubectl -n r5d-chat patch secret r5d-chat-secrets \
  --type merge -p "$(jq -n \
    --arg url "$(printf 'https://research.example.com' | base64 -w0)" \
    --arg key "$(printf 'awr_your_key' | base64 -w0)" \
    '{data: {AWR_BASE_URL: $url, AWR_API_KEY: $key}}')"

kubectl -n r5d-chat rollout restart deployment/r5d-chat-r5d-chat
kubectl -n r5d-chat rollout status deployment/r5d-chat-r5d-chat

Confirm the tools appear in a new chat run. Removing either variable disables them cleanly.

The tools

tool

Searches the public web and returns concise result metadata.

Parameter	Type	Default
`query`	string	required
`limit`	integer, max 10	5

tool

Renders one public URL and returns clean Markdown.

Parameter	Type	Default
`url`	string	required

tool

Delegates a broad multi-source research task and returns cited results.

Parameter	Type	Default
`query`	string	required
`maxDepth`	integer, max 5	service default
`maxPages`	integer, max 20	service default

How requests flow

The control plane calls the research service, not the browser and not the workspace pod. Requests carry the API key as a bearer token, pass through the standard outbound URL guard, and have a 180-second timeout. Streaming responses are collected and truncated to a bounded size before reaching the model. This means workspace pods never need the research credential, and disabling workspace internet egress does not disable these tools.

The agent can also reach the web from inside the workspace with curl when networkPolicy.workspaceInternetEgress is enabled. These tools are for clean, structured retrieval; the workspace shell is for arbitrary network work.

Security notes

Treat retrieved content as untrusted

Web pages can contain prompt-injection text aimed at the agent. Content returned by these tools reaches the model, so avoid pairing broad web access with high-privilege MCP tools unless you have reviewed that risk.

Keep the API key in the Secret

The key grants use of your research quota. Store it in the Kubernetes Secret, never in a values file committed to Git.

Costs scale with depth

web_research fetches many pages per call. Constrain maxDepth and maxPages at the service if usage needs a ceiling.

Get started

Install

Configure

Operate

Reference

Enable it

The tools

How requests flow

Security notes

​Enable it

​The tools

​How requests flow

​Security notes

Enable it

The tools

How requests flow

Security notes