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

Get an API key at parallel.ai
Install the CLI:

curl -fsSL https://parallel.ai/install.sh | bash
export PARALLEL_API_KEY=your-key

parallel-search

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