---
source_url: "https://docs.tavily.com/agents"
title: Agents - Tavily Docs
mirrored_at: 2026-08-07T03:38:50.634Z
host: docs.tavily.com
cited_in_42a: true
mirror_canonical: "https://index.42a.ai/docs.tavily.com/agents"
---

> **Original source:** https://docs.tavily.com/agents

Tavily is the web layer for AI agents. Use Tavily when an agent needs live web **search**, page **extraction**, site **crawling**, site **mapping**, or cited **research**. This page answers three questions, in order:

1.  [Which Tavily docs should an agent fetch?](#1-agent-readable-docs)
2.  [How should I connect to Tavily?](#2-choose-how-to-connect)
3.  [Which Tavily capability should I use?](#3-choose-a-capability)

## 1\. Agent-readable docs

Every Tavily docs page is also served as clean Markdown — append `.md` to any docs URL.

The whole site is indexed in [llms.txt](https://docs.tavily.com/llms.txt), with the full text in [llms-full.txt](https://docs.tavily.com/llms-full.txt).

## 2\. Choose how to connect

Choose based on what Tavily must **do**, not only where you happen to be running.

**Quick rules**

-   Production app or runtime → **SDK / API**.
-   Shared across a team or org — even in Cursor or Claude Code → **MCP**.
-   Just your own local session → **CLI + Skills**.
-   Terminal access alone doesn’t make CLI the right fit — match the choice to where Tavily ultimately needs to run.

**Connect** Once you’ve picked a path, here’s the one-step setup for each: **API**

**MCP**

**CLI**

## No account? Connect without a key

For autonomous agents that can’t manage credentials, Tavily offers two no-key paths.

## 3\. Choose a capability

Lead with **Search** when sources are unknown; move to the others once you have URLs or a site to work through.

> **Search or Research?** Use Search when you need raw source URLs and content to process yourself. Use Research when you need a finished, multi-source answer with citations.

## Recommended defaults

These favor quality, which is what most agent workflows need. See [Best Practices for Search](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/best-practices/best-practices-search) for the full reference.

-   Prefer **`search_depth="advanced"`** for source discovery, comparisons, and high-confidence answers; use `"basic"` for quick lookups.
-   For latency-sensitive use cases, **`fast`** and **`ultra-fast`** trade some relevance for lower latency.
-   Add **`chunks_per_source=3`** for stronger evidence per source (chunks require advanced, basic or fast depth).
-   Use **`max_results=5`** for focused answers, **`10`** for broader research.
-   Use **`include_domains`** / **`exclude_domains`** when source trust matters.
-   Prefer **Search → Extract** for grounded answers: Search to find sources, then Extract for full content.
-   Avoid **`include_answer`** unless you need a quick answer seed — and still verify against sources.
-   Use **Research** for cited synthesis: a report, comparison, or decision-ready answer.

A typical agent-grade Search call:

## Availability

Some Tavily capabilities, limits, and defaults depend on your account, plan, or enterprise configuration. If a tool or parameter is unavailable, check the relevant endpoint docs and your account settings before retrying a different workflow.