DDG Search — Usage Guide

When NOT to search: Skip search for well-established facts your training covers reliably (e.g. "what is a list comprehension"). Search when the answer may have changed, when you need citable sources, or when the user explicitly asks you to look something up.

Tool Selection

ddg-search_web-search

ddg-search_iask-search

ddg-search_monica-search

ddg-search_web-search

— Standard Results

• query

  (required): search query in any language

• mode

  :

  "short"

  (default) or

  "detailed"

  • "short"

    → title + URL + snippet (1 HTTP request, fast)

  • "detailed"

    → additionally fetches each result's full page via Jina Reader (headless browser, handles JS-rendered pages). Content returned as cleaned Markdown. Parallel fetches, 8s per URL / 15s total timeout.

• numResults

  : 1–20, default 3

⚠️ Cache footgun: The cache key is the query string only. If you run

web-search(query="X", mode="short")

then

web-search(query="X", mode="detailed")

within 5 minutes, you'll get the cached short results. Request

mode="detailed"

on the first call. To bust the cache, slightly rephrase the query. To read a single URL directly, use the

webfetch

tool instead.

ddg-search_iask-search

— AI-Synthesized Answers

• query

  (required): natural language question

• mode

  (default:

  "thinking"

  at runtime): controls the AI persona

  • "question"

    — everyday factual questions

  • "academic"

    — scholarly research, citations, scientific topics

  • "forums"

    — community opinions, personal experiences, troubleshooting

  • "wiki"

    — encyclopedic background, concepts, definitions, history

  • "thinking"

    — complex multi-step reasoning and deep analysis

• detailLevel

  :

  "concise"

  |

  "detailed"

  |

  "comprehensive"

  (default: standard)

ddg-search_monica-search

— Monica AI Synthesis

• query

  (required): up to 5,000 characters

• iask-search

  is slow or unavailable
• You want a second synthesis perspective

Rate limiting: Monica enforces a 429 rate limit — space out repeated Monica calls. No caching — every call hits the API.

Multilingual Queries

• Japanese, Korean, Chinese topics → query in that language
• Global/tech topics → English often yields richer results
• For cross-cultural topics, run parallel queries in multiple languages

Common Workflows

Quick fact check

ddg-search_web-search(query="...", numResults=5)

Deep research

ddg-search_iask-search(query="...", mode="thinking", detailLevel="comprehensive")
ddg-search_web-search(query="...", numResults=5)
webfetch(url="https://...")

Current events / news

ddg-search_web-search(query="... site:reuters.com OR site:bbc.com", mode="detailed", numResults=5)

Technical how-to or academic topic

ddg-search_iask-search(query="...", mode="academic", detailLevel="detailed")

Community opinions / troubleshooting

ddg-search_iask-search(query="...", mode="forums", detailLevel="detailed")

When Things Go Wrong

• Empty results → rephrase the query (different keywords, add/remove qualifiers) and retry
• Monica 429 rate limit → switch to

  iask-search

  or

  web-search

  instead
• iask-search timeout → fall back to

  monica-search

  or

  web-search

• All three fail → tell the user you couldn't retrieve live results and offer to answer from training knowledge with caveats

Citation Format (Required)

DeepSeek R1 achieved 79.8% on AIME 2024, matching OpenAI o1 (Epoch AI). Supabase Pro costs $25/month and includes auth, storage, and realtime (Supabase Pricing).

DeepSeek R1 achieved 79.8% on AIME 2024. ... Sources: Epoch AI, Supabase Pricing

Query Tips

• Be specific:

  "Python asyncio error handling 2024"

  beats

  "Python async"

• Use quotes for exact phrases:

  "model collapse" definition

• Add time signals when recency matters: include

  "2025"

  or

  "latest"

• Site filter for trusted sources:

  query site:docs.python.org

• Comparisons: use

  "X vs Y"

  with

  web-search

  , or

  iask-search

  with

  mode="thinking"