Web search

Enable web search to let the AI pull in live information from the web. Responses include inline citation markers and a sources footer with clickable links. All formatting is handled automatically.

Enabling web search

Set webSearch: true on the OpenAI engine:

import { OpenAiEngine } from '@robojs/ai/engines/openai'

export default {
	engine: new OpenAiEngine({ webSearch: true })
}

import { OpenAiEngine } from '@robojs/ai/engines/openai'

export default {
	engine: new OpenAiEngine({ webSearch: true })
}

The engine adds a web_search tool to the OpenAI Responses API toolset. When the model decides a query benefits from live data, it triggers the search automatically.

How citations work

When web search is active, the response pipeline processes citations in three steps:

1. Marker injection -- injectCitationMarkers() reads URL annotations from the OpenAI response and inserts numbered markers like [1], [2], [3] at the corresponding positions in the text.
2. Deduplication -- createCitationContext() groups citations by URL and title, assigning each unique source a sequential index.
3. Footer formatting -- formatSourcesLine() builds a "Sources:" line with clickable markdown links. Labels are extracted from page titles or hostnames, capped at 60 characters via sanitizeCitationLabel().

No formatting code is needed on your end. The pipeline runs inside the engine before the response reaches Discord.

Example output

A web-search-powered response looks like this in Discord:

The Robo.js framework supports Discord Activities, bots, and web
servers with a plugin architecture [1]. Version 0.11 introduced
native AI voice conversations and vision capabilities [2].

Sources: [Robo.js Documentation](https://robojs.dev), [Release Notes](https://github.com/...)

Citation markers appear inline where the model referenced external sources. The footer collects all sources into a single line.

Combining with other features

Web search pairs with other engine options. You can enable it alongside a custom model and temperature:

import { OpenAiEngine } from '@robojs/ai/engines/openai'

export default {
	engine: new OpenAiEngine({
		webSearch: true,
		chat: {
			model: 'gpt-4.1',
			temperature: 0.5
		}
	})
}

import { OpenAiEngine } from '@robojs/ai/engines/openai'

export default {
	engine: new OpenAiEngine({
		webSearch: true,
		chat: {
			model: 'gpt-4.1',
			temperature: 0.5
		}
	})
}

Next steps