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Providers

Perplexity

The Perplexity plugin registers a web_search provider with two transports: the native Perplexity Search API (structured results with filters) and Perplexity Sonar chat completions, direct or via OpenRouter (AI-synthesized answers with citations).

Property Value
Type Web search provider (not a model provider)
Auth PERPLEXITY_API_KEY (native) or OPENROUTER_API_KEY (via OpenRouter)
Config path plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.apiKey
Overrides plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.baseUrl / .model
Get a key perplexity.ai/settings/api

Install plugin

bash
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/perplexity-plugin

Installation applies to a running Gateway automatically; otherwise it takes effect on the next startup. See Apply changes and inspect.

Getting started

  • Set the API key

    bash
    openclaw configure --section web

    Or set the key directly:

    bash
    openclaw config set plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.apiKey "pplx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"

    A key exported as PERPLEXITY_API_KEY or OPENROUTER_API_KEY in the Gateway environment also works.

  • Start searching

    web_search auto-detects Perplexity once its key is the available search credential; no further setup is required. To pin the provider explicitly:

    bash
    openclaw config set tools.web.search.provider perplexity

    • Search modes

    The plugin resolves transport in this order:

    1. webSearch.baseUrl or webSearch.model set: always routes through Sonar chat completions against that endpoint, regardless of key type.
    2. Otherwise, key source decides the endpoint: a configured key's prefix picks the transport (config beats environment variables); an environment key uses its matching endpoint directly.
    Key prefix Transport Features
    pplx- Native Perplexity Search API (https://api.perplexity.ai) Structured results, domain/language/date filters
    sk-or- OpenRouter (https://openrouter.ai/api/v1), Sonar model AI-synthesized answers with citations

    A configured key with any other prefix also uses the native Search API. The chat-completions path defaults to the perplexity/sonar-pro model; override it with plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.model.

    Native API filtering

    Filter Description Transport
    count Results per search, 1-10 (default 5); accepted but ignored on the chat-completions path Both
    freshness Recency window: day, week, month, year Both
    country 2-letter country code (us, de, jp) Native only
    language ISO 639-1 language code (en, fr, zh) Native only
    date_after / date_before Published-date range in YYYY-MM-DD Native only
    domain_filter Max 20 domains; allowlist or --prefixed denylist, never mixed Native only
    max_tokens / max_tokens_per_page Content budget across all results / per page; max_tokens max 1000000 Native only

    Native-only filters return a descriptive error on the chat-completions path. freshness cannot be combined with date_after/date_before.

    Advanced configuration

    Environment variable for daemon processes
    OpenRouter proxy setup

    To route Perplexity searches through OpenRouter, set an OPENROUTER_API_KEY (prefix sk-or-) instead of a native Perplexity key. OpenClaw detects the key and switches to the Sonar transport automatically. Useful if you already have OpenRouter billing set up and want to consolidate providers there.

    Integration header

    Requests to the Perplexity API (api.perplexity.ai) identify OpenClaw with X-Pplx-Integration: openclaw/<version>. Searches routed through OpenRouter send OpenRouter's app-attribution headers instead. A custom proxy baseUrl gets neither.

    Perplexity search tool

    How the agent invokes Perplexity searches and interprets results.
    Configuration reference

    Full configuration reference including plugin entries.
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