Web search
Anton can query the live web through the web_search tool, which is on by
default. How it executes depends on your LLM provider:
| Provider | web_search | Setup |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic BYOK | Anthropic native server tool | None — billed on your Anthropic key |
| OpenAI BYOK | OpenAI Responses API native | None — billed on your OpenAI key |
| Minds-Enterprise-Cloud (mdb.ai) | mdb.ai passthrough | None — billed on your Minds key |
| Generic OpenAI-compatible (Together, Groq, Ollama, vLLM, …) | Exa.ai or Brave (you choose) | Run anton setup-search once |
For the first three rows there is nothing to configure — the LLM provider executes the search server-side and folds the results directly into its response, billed on the key you already set up.
Generic OpenAI-compatible endpoints
Generic endpoints don't ship a native search capability, so Anton uses an
external search provider — Exa.ai or Brave Search. After anton setup
finishes configuring a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint, Anton offers to set
one up on the spot. You can also run (or re-run) that step at any time:
anton setup-search
You pick a provider, paste an API key, and Anton validates the key with a
probe call before saving it. The key is persisted to ~/.anton/.env, so it
carries across sessions and workspaces — exactly like your LLM key. See
Search providers for the full setup walkthrough
and where to get keys.
If you skip the step, web_search is unavailable on that endpoint until you
run anton setup-search.
Opting out
To disable web search entirely, set:
export ANTON_WEB_SEARCH_ENABLED=false
or add the line to your workspace config (.anton/.env).
Caveats
- Provider rate limits apply, on both LLM-native and external providers.
- For retrieving the contents of a specific URL, Anton uses a separate tool — see Web fetch.