Adds a new bundled web search provider plugin backed by xAI's agentic
Web Search tool (server-side `web_search` on the Responses API). Slots
in alongside the existing Firecrawl / Tavily / Exa / Brave / SearXNG /
DDGS providers; opt in via `web.backend: xai` (or auto-selected by the
registry's single-provider shortcut when it's the only available web
provider, matching every other backend's behavior).
Reuses the existing xAI HTTP credential plumbing (`tools/xai_http.py`)
so it works with both `hermes auth login xai-oauth` (SuperGrok OAuth)
and `XAI_API_KEY` — no new credential paths, no new env vars, no new
setup-wizard prompts. The existing `xai_grok` post_setup hook handles
credential collection.
Reference: https://docs.x.ai/developers/tools/web-search
Provider behavior
-----------------
- Sends a structured prompt to Grok with `tools=[{"type": "web_search"}]`
enabled and `include=["no_inline_citations"]`, then parses results
from a `{"results": [...]}` JSON block (primary), falling back to
`url_citation` annotations (secondary) and the top-level `citations`
list (last-ditch). Annotation fallback falls through to citations
when no rows are extractable, so future annotation types xAI may
add don't silently mask real data.
- HTTP 200 + `{"error": {...}}` envelopes (model-overload, refusal)
are surfaced as failures rather than masked as success-with-empty-
results.
- HTTP 401 on the OAuth path triggers a single `force_refresh=True`
retry — closes two gaps the resolver's proactive JWT-exp shortcut
doesn't cover: opaque (non-JWT) access tokens and mid-window
revocation. Env-var (`XAI_API_KEY`) credentials never retry; they
can't be refreshed and an immediate retry would just burn quota.
- `is_available()` is a cheap probe (env var OR auth.json read), never
invokes the OAuth resolver — required by the ABC contract because
it runs on every `hermes tools` repaint and at tool-registration time.
- Class docstring documents the LLM-in-a-trench-coat trust model so
callers piping untrusted input into `web_search` know returned URLs
are model-generated and should be validated before fetching.
Config (`config.yaml`):
web:
backend: xai
xai:
model: grok-4.3 # optional, defaults to grok-4.3
allowed_domains: # optional, max 5 — mutex with excluded_domains
- arxiv.org
excluded_domains: # optional, max 5
- example-spam.com
timeout: 90 # optional, seconds
Files
-----
- plugins/web/xai/plugin.yaml (new) plugin manifest
- plugins/web/xai/__init__.py (new) register(ctx) hook
- plugins/web/xai/provider.py (new) XAIWebSearchProvider impl
- tools/xai_http.py (+47) has_xai_credentials()
cheap-probe helper +
keyword-only force_refresh
arg on resolve_xai_http_
credentials() (backwards
compatible; all 9 other
call sites unaffected)
- tools/web_tools.py (+11) "xai" added to configured-
backend set + branch in
_is_backend_available()
- tests/tools/test_web_providers_xai.py (new, 39 tests) covers
identity, cheap-probe semantics,
JSON / annotation / citations
parse paths, request payload
shape, error envelopes, OAuth
force-refresh-on-401 retry,
env-var-no-retry guard, 500-not-
retried guard, refresh-returns-
same-token guard, OAuth runtime
resolution, and backend wiring.
Tests
-----
- 39 xai-suite passes
- 79 sibling web-provider tests (brave-free, ddgs, searxng, base) pass
- 119 cross-suite tests for other xai_http callers (transcription,
x_search, tts) pass — verifies the new keyword-only arg is BC
- scripts/check-windows-footguns.py: clean on all 5 modified files
No edits to run_agent.py, cli.py, gateway/, toolsets, config schema,
plugin core, or auth core.
Jaaneek