You.com Search

Built-in You.com search tools for AI agents - web search, news, content extraction, and images

from praisonaiagents import Agent, search_web

agent = Agent(name="Researcher", tools=[search_web])
agent.start("Compare cloud GPU pricing for fine-tuning")

The user asks a research question; the agent uses You.com-backed search and returns a concise answer.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10 or higher
• PraisonAI Agents package installed
• youdotcom package installed
• YDC_API_KEY environment variable set

You.com provides AI-powered search capabilities optimized for LLM applications. PraisonAI includes built-in You.com tools for easy integration.

Quick Start

1. Install and set key

   pip install praisonaiagents youdotcom
   export YDC_API_KEY=your_ydc_api_key
   
2. Search with agent

   from praisonaiagents import Agent, search_web
   
   agent = Agent(
       name="YouAgent",
       instructions="Search the web for the latest information.",
       tools=[search_web],
   )
   
   agent.start("Find recent news about space exploration")
   

Installation

pip install praisonaiagents youdotcom

Setup

export YDC_API_KEY=your_ydc_api_key
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key

Built-in You.com Tool

PraisonAI provides a built-in ydc tool that you can import directly:

from praisonaiagents import Agent
from praisonaiagents import ydc

agent = Agent(
    name="SearchAgent",
    role="Web Researcher",
    goal="Find information on the web",
    tools=[ydc]
)

result = agent.start("What are the latest AI trends in 2025?")
print(result)

Available Functions

Function	Description
ydc	Web search (alias for ydc_search)
ydc_search	Unified web + news search
ydc_contents	Extract content from URLs
ydc_news	Live news search
ydc_images	Image search

Basic Usage

Simple Search

from praisonaiagents import ydc

# Simple search
results = ydc("Python programming best practices")
print(results)

Search with Options

from praisonaiagents import ydc_search

results = ydc_search(
    query="AI trends 2025",
    count=10,                    # Max results per section
    freshness="week",            # "day", "week", "month", "year"
    country="US",                # ISO country code
    safesearch="moderate",       # "off", "moderate", "strict"
    livecrawl="web",             # "web", "news", "all"
    livecrawl_formats="markdown" # "html" or "markdown"
)

# Access web results
for r in results.get("results", {}).get("web", []):
    print(f"- {r['title']}: {r['url']}")

# Access news results
for r in results.get("results", {}).get("news", []):
    print(f"- {r['title']}: {r['url']}")

Extract Content from URLs

from praisonaiagents import ydc_contents

content = ydc_contents(
    urls=["https://praison.ai/docs", "https://example.com"],
    format="markdown"  # "html" or "markdown"
)

for result in content.get("results", []):
    print(f"URL: {result['url']}")
    print(f"Content: {result.get('markdown', '')[:500]}...")

Live News Search

from praisonaiagents import ydc_news

news = ydc_news(
    query="artificial intelligence",
    count=10
)

for article in news.get("news", {}).get("results", []):
    print(f"- {article['title']}")
    print(f"  Source: {article.get('source_name', 'Unknown')}")

Image Search

from praisonaiagents import ydc_images

images = ydc_images(query="AI robots")

for img in images.get("images", {}).get("results", []):
    print(f"- {img['title']}: {img['image_url']}")

With PraisonAI Agent

from praisonaiagents import Agent
from praisonaiagents import ydc

agent = Agent(
    name="SearchAgent",
    role="Web Researcher",
    goal="Find and analyze information from the web",
    tools=[ydc]
)

result = agent.start("Research the latest developments in quantum computing")
print(result)

Using YouTools Class

For more control, use the YouTools class directly:

from praisonaiagents import YouTools

# Initialize with custom API key (optional)
tools = YouTools(api_key="your_api_key")  # or uses YDC_API_KEY env var

# Search
results = tools.search("AI news", count=5)

# Get contents
content = tools.get_contents(["https://example.com"], format="markdown")

# Live news
news = tools.live_news("technology trends")

# Images
images = tools.images("AI robots")

Search Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
query	str	Search query (supports operators)
count	int	Max results per section (default 10, max 100)
freshness	str	”day”, “week”, “month”, “year” or date range
country	str	ISO country code (e.g., “US”, “GB”)
language	str	BCP 47 language code (e.g., “EN”, “JP”)
offset	int	Pagination offset (0-9)
safesearch	str	”off”, “moderate”, “strict”
livecrawl	str	”web”, “news”, or “all”
livecrawl_formats	str	”html” or “markdown”

Search Operators

You.com supports advanced search operators:

from praisonaiagents import ydc_search

# Site-specific search
results = ydc_search("site:github.com python AI")

# File type filter
results = ydc_search("machine learning filetype:pdf")

# Include/exclude terms
results = ydc_search("AI +ethics -bias")

# Boolean operators
results = ydc_search("(Python OR JavaScript) AND machine learning")

Key Points

• Simple function signature: Tool accepts query: str and returns dict
• Environment variable: Set YDC_API_KEY before running
• Unified results: Web and news results in single response
• LLM-ready snippets: Pre-extracted relevant text excerpts

Best Practices

Use AI snippets for summarized answers

You.com AI snippets provide pre-summarized answers - use them for quick, concise responses.

Set YDC_API_KEY for production

The free tier has low rate limits - set YDC_API_KEY for production workloads.

Combine with web search fallback

Use search_web with providers=['you.com', 'duckduckgo'] for automatic fallback.

Use news mode for current events

Set search_type='news' for current events queries to get fresher results.

Related

Custom Tools

Build your own agent tools

Tools Overview

Browse PraisonAI tool documentation