---

What It Does

Zero-API-Key Web Search is a local-first, MCP-native search and evidence-verification toolkit for AI agents. It gives your agent live web search, LLM-optimized context extraction, claim verification with weighted evidence scoring, and citation-ready evidence reports — all without requiring an API key by default.

The verification model (evidence-aware-heuristic-v3) classifies sources as supporting, conflicting, or neutral using keyword overlap, domain-quality heuristics, freshness, and optional page-aware rescoring. This project does not perform fact-level proof or logical entailment; it is a signal amplifier for agent grounding decisions.

30-Second Setup

pip install zero-api-key-web-search

# Search the web — no API key needed
zero-search "Python 3.13 release" --json

# Build citation-ready LLM context
zero-context "Python 3.13 stable release" --goggles docs-first

# Read a page
zero-browse "https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/" --json

# Verify a claim
zero-verify "Python 3.13 is the latest stable release" --deep --json

# Full evidence report
zero-report "Python 3.13 stable release" \
  --claim "Python 3.13 is the latest stable release" --deep --json

Legacy CLI aliases (search-web, browse-page, verify-claim, evidence-report) also work.

Your Agent Gets

Agent job	Command	What the agent gets
Ground an answer	zero-context "FastAPI lifespan docs"	compact Markdown context with citations
Verify a claim	zero-verify "Python 3.13 is the latest stable release"	supported / contested / likely false verdict
Build an evidence report	zero-report "AI regulation news"	rationale, source digest, warnings, next steps
Read a blocked page	zero-browse "https://geo-restricted-site.com"	page content, auto-unlocked if Web Unlocker is configured
Search with a specific engine	zero-search "news" --engine bing --type news	Bing SERP results via Bright Data
Serve an MCP client	zero-mcp	8 tools for Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and any MCP-compatible runtime

Provider Paths: Free to Production

Start free, scale when you're ready. Every path works out of the box — no configuration required for the default.

Path 1: Free (Zero Configuration)

Works immediately after pip install. Uses DuckDuckGo — no API key, no account.

zero-search "Python 3.13 release" --json

Path 2: Free Cross-Validated

Add a self-hosted SearXNG instance for dual-provider cross-validation — still free, no API key.

# Start SearXNG locally
./scripts/start-searxng.sh
export ZERO_SEARCH_SEARXNG_URL="http://127.0.0.1:8080"

zero-search "AI regulation" --profile free-verified --json

Or with Docker Compose:

cp .env.searxng.example .env
docker compose -f docker-compose.searxng.yml up -d

Full guide: docs/searxng-self-hosted.md.

Path 3: Production SERP

Bright Data provides professional-grade search across 7 engines with structured results, LLM-friendly markdown output, AI Overviews, mobile device emulation, and geo-targeting for 195 countries. New users get 5,000 free credits.

# Interactive setup wizard — tests your key and zone
zero-setup

# Or set environment variables directly
export ZERO_SEARCH_BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY="your-key"
export ZERO_SEARCH_BRIGHTDATA_ZONE="serp_api1"

# Search across different engines
zero-search "news" --provider brightdata --engine google --type news --region us-en --json
zero-search "news" --provider brightdata --engine bing --type news --region gb-en --json
zero-search "news" --provider brightdata --engine yandex --region ru-ru --json

Supported engines: google, bing, duckduckgo, yandex, baidu, yahoo, naver.

Path 4: Production + Web Unlocker

Access blocked, CAPTCHA-protected, or geo-restricted pages. Uses the same Bright Data API key — just create a Web Unlocker zone.

# Setup wizard handles zone creation guidance
zero-setup

# Or set the zone manually
export ZERO_SEARCH_BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY="your-key"
export ZERO_SEARCH_BRIGHTDATA_ZONE="serp_api1"
export ZERO_SEARCH_BRIGHTDATA_UNLOCKER_ZONE="web_unlocker1"

# Browse automatically falls back to Web Unlocker on 403/429
zero-browse "https://protected-site.com/article" --json

# Or force Web Unlocker
zero-browse "https://protected-site.com/article" --use-unlocker always --json

Path 5: Maximum Evidence

All providers active — DDGS, SearXNG, Bright Data, and Web Unlocker — for the strongest cross-validated evidence.

export ZERO_SEARCH_BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY="your-key"
export ZERO_SEARCH_SEARXNG_URL="http://127.0.0.1:8080"

zero-report "AI regulation news" --profile max-evidence --deep --json

Provider Profiles

Profile	Providers	Best for
free	ddgs	Zero-setup local search
free-verified	ddgs, searxng	Free cross-validation
production	brightdata	Production reliability and geo-targeting
production-unlock	brightdata, web_unlocker	Production SERP + access blocked pages
max-evidence	ddgs, searxng, brightdata	Maximum provider diversity

zero-search "FastAPI lifespan docs" --profile free-verified --goggles docs-first
zero-context "FastAPI lifespan docs" --profile free --goggles docs-first
zero-report "AI regulation news" --profile production-unlock --json

MCP Server

Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and any MCP-compatible agent:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zero-api-key-web-search": {
      "command": "zero-mcp"
    }
  }
}

For npm/npx-based MCP launchers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zero-api-key-web-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["zero-api-key-web-search", "zero-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Eight tools exposed:

Tool	What it does
list_providers	Show provider status, profiles, goggles, and setup hints
search_web	Live web search with engine selection and region targeting
llm_context	Compact, citation-ready Markdown context for LLMs
browse_page	Fetch and extract page content (auto-unlocks blocked pages)
verify_claim	Evaluate whether a claim is supported, contested, or under-evidenced
evidence_report	Full evidence report with rationale, source digest, and next steps
clear_cache	Clear the response cache
setup_providers	Check provider status, test API keys, and get setup instructions

MCP Tool Parameters

search_web key parameters:

• query (required) — search query
• type — text, news, images, videos, books (default: text)
• engine — google, bing, duckduckgo, yandex, baidu, yahoo, naver (Bright Data only)
• region — region code, e.g. us-en, zh-cn, wt-wt (default: wt-wt)
• profile — provider profile name
• goggles — built-in reranking preset

browse_page key parameters:

• url (required) — page URL
• format — markdown or text (default: markdown)
• use_unlocker — auto (default), always, or never
• max_chars — max content length (default: 50000)

setup_providers key parameters:

• test_brightdata_key — test a Bright Data API key
• test_brightdata_zone — SERP zone name (default: serp_api1)
• test_brightdata_unlocker_zone — Web Unlocker zone name
• test_searxng_url — test a SearXNG instance URL

Interactive Setup Wizard

The zero-setup command guides you through provider configuration, validates API keys and zones, and writes .env files:

# Interactive wizard
zero-setup

# Quick status check
zero-setup --status

# Test a Bright Data API key
zero-setup --test-brightdata YOUR_API_KEY

# Test a Bright Data Web Unlocker zone
zero-setup --test-brightdata-unlocker YOUR_API_KEY --unlocker-zone web_unlocker1

# Test a SearXNG instance
zero-setup --test-searxng http://localhost:8080

Bright Data Integration

Bright Data powers two production-grade capabilities:

SERP API — Multi-Engine Search

Professional-grade search across 7 engines with structured results, LLM-friendly markdown output, AI Overviews, mobile device results, and geo-targeting for 195 countries.

from zero_api_key_web_search.providers import BrightDataProvider

provider = BrightDataProvider(api_key="your-key", zone="serp_api1")

# Google (default)
results = provider.search("Python 3.13", search_type="text", region="us-en")

# Bing, Yandex, Baidu, Yahoo, Naver, DuckDuckGo
results = provider.search("AI regulation", search_type="news", engine="bing")

# Markdown output for LLM consumption
results = provider.search("climate change", data_format="markdown")

Web Unlocker — Access Blocked Pages

Automatically handles CAPTCHAs, anti-bot protection, IP rotation, and JavaScript rendering. Access pages that return 403, require login, or are geo-restricted.

from zero_api_key_web_search.providers import WebUnlockerProvider

provider = WebUnlockerProvider(api_key="your-key", zone="web_unlocker1")

# Get page content as markdown
result = provider.unlock("https://protected-site.com/article", data_format="markdown")
print(result["content"])  # Clean markdown of the page

# With country targeting
result = provider.unlock("https://geo-restricted.com", country="us")

Auto-Fallback in browse_page

When Web Unlocker is configured, browse_page automatically retries blocked pages (403/429) through the unlocker:

from zero_api_key_web_search.browse_page import browse

# Auto-fallback (default) — try direct, then unlocker on 403/429
result = browse("https://protected-site.com/article")

# Always use Web Unlocker
result = browse("https://protected-site.com/article", use_unlocker=True)

# Never use Web Unlocker
result = browse("https://protected-site.com/article", use_unlocker=False)

New Bright Data users can sign up with 5,000 free credits: https://get.brightdata.com/h21j9xz4uxgd

Why This Over a Plain Search Wrapper?

Feature	Plain search	Zero-API-Key Web Search
Live search results	✅	✅
Multi-engine SERP (7 engines)	❌	✅ (Bright Data)
News / images / videos / books	❌	✅
Region & time filtering	❌	✅
Blocked page unlocking	❌	✅ (Web Unlocker)
Full-page text extraction	❌	✅
Claim verification with evidence scores	❌	✅
Supporting vs. conflicting evidence	❌	✅
Citation-ready evidence reports	❌	✅
Dual-provider cross-validation	❌	✅
API key required	Often	Never by default
Cost	Sometimes	Free by default

How Verification Works

zero-verify uses the evidence-aware heuristic v3 model:

1. Search for the claim across available providers
2. Score each source on keyword overlap, source quality, freshness
3. Classify as supporting, conflicting, or neutral
4. Optionally fetch top pages for deeper page-aware analysis
5. Render a verdict with confidence and evidence breakdown

Verdict	Meaning
supported	Strong evidence, low conflict
likely_supported	Leans positive, not decisive
contested	Support and conflict both meaningful
likely_false	Conflict strong, support weak
insufficient_evidence	Too weak for any firmer verdict

This is a heuristic evidence classifier, not a proof engine. See docs/trust-model.md for details and limitations, docs/verification-model.md for signal definitions, and docs/benchmarks.md for regression results.

Built-in Goggles Presets

Goggles	Effect
docs-first	Boosts docs, API, support, release-note, and official-looking sources
research	Boosts academic, institutional, paper, and study-oriented sources
news-balanced	Boosts reporting/analysis signals and demotes low-context aggregators

You can also pass a JSON file to --goggles with boost_domains, block_domains, demote_domains, and boost_title_terms.

Full guide: docs/agent-search-controls.md.

Platform Support

Platform	Status	Entry point
CLI	Ready	zero-search, zero-context, zero-browse, zero-verify, zero-report, zero-setup
MCP	Ready	zero-mcp
Claude Code	Ready	.claude/skills/zero-api-key-web-search/SKILL.md
Gemini	Ready	GEMINI.md + .gemini/SKILL.md
Cursor	Ready	.cursor/rules/zero-api-key-web-search.md
Copilot	Ready	.github/copilot/instructions.md
Codex	Ready	.codex/SKILL.md
Continue	Ready	.continue/skills/zero-api-key-web-search/SKILL.md
Manus	Ready	Root SKILL.md + docs/manus.md
Kiro	Ready	.kiro/steering/zero-api-key-web-search.md
OpenClaw	Ready	zero_api_key_web_search/skills/SKILL.md

Architecture

zero_api_key_web_search/
  core.py              # UltimateSearcher — search, verify, report engine
  browse_page.py       # Readability-style page extraction + Web Unlocker fallback
  mcp_server.py        # MCP server (8 tools)
  provider_setup.py    # Interactive setup wizard (zero-setup)
  cache.py             # Response caching
  transport.py         # SSL/TLS helpers
  search_web.py        # CLI: zero-search
  context.py            # CLI: zero-context
  verify_claim.py       # CLI: zero-verify
  evidence_report.py    # CLI: zero-report
  providers/
    base.py             # SearchProvider protocol (sync + async)
    ddgs.py             # DuckDuckGo provider (free, zero-config)
    searxng.py          # SearXNG provider (free, self-hosted)
    brightdata.py        # Bright Data SERP — 7 engines, markdown, AI Overviews
    web_unlocker.py      # Bright Data Web Unlocker — blocked/CAPTCHA/geo pages
  skills/
    SKILL.md            # Bundled OpenClaw skill

Key engineering features:

• Circuit breaker: Trips after 3 consecutive provider failures, auto-resets after 60s
• Async support: asearch() for concurrent provider calls via asyncio.gather
• Auto-fallback: browse_page retries 403/429 pages via Web Unlocker automatically
• Multi-engine SERP: 7 search engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Baidu, Yahoo, Naver)
• Structured logging: Configurable logging at search/verify/report entry points
• Readability heuristic: Semantic HTML5 + ARIA roles + text density scoring
• Baseline comparison: Majority-vote and keyword-count baselines in reports
• Sub-claim decomposition: Targeted sub-queries for independent evidence gathering

Installation

pip install zero-api-key-web-search

Python 3.10+ required. No API keys, no accounts, no configuration needed.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest tests/ -q           # 98 tests
ruff check zero_api_key_web_search/ tests/
pyright zero_api_key_web_search/     # 0 errors
coverage report --fail-under=80       # 85% coverage

Evidence Report Example

{
  "verdict": "contested",
  "confidence": "MEDIUM",
  "executive_summary": "Evidence is split...",
  "verdict_rationale": ["Source A supports...", "Source B contradicts..."],
  "coverage_warnings": ["Single-provider evidence path."],
  "source_digest": [
    {"title": "...", "url": "...", "classification": "supporting", "evidence_strength": 3}
  ],
  "next_steps": ["Add a second provider for cross-validation."]
}

Verification for Ecosystem Reviewers

1. zero-report "Python 3.13 stable release" --claim "Python 3.13 is the latest stable release" --deep --json
2. docs/ecosystem-readiness.md
3. docs/gemini-submission-checklist.md
4. docs/trust-model.md

License

MIT License.