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Perplexity (Web Search Provider)

The Perplexity plugin provides web search capabilities through the Perplexity Search API or Perplexity Sonar via OpenRouter.
This page covers the Perplexity provider setup. For the Perplexity tool (how the agent uses it), see Perplexity tool.

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Getting started

1

Set the API key

Run the interactive web-search configuration flow:
Or set the key directly:
2

Start searching

The agent will automatically use Perplexity for web searches once the key is configured. No additional steps are required.

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Search modes

The plugin auto-selects the transport based on API key prefix:
When your key starts with pplx-, Velaclaw uses the native Perplexity Search API. This transport returns structured results and supports domain, language, and date filters (see filtering options below).

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Native API filtering

Filtering options are only available when using the native Perplexity API (pplx- key). OpenRouter/Sonar searches do not support these parameters.
When using the native Perplexity API, searches support the following filters:

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Advanced notes

If the Velaclaw Gateway runs as a daemon (launchd/systemd), make sure PERPLEXITY_API_KEY is available to that process.
A key set only in ~/.profile will not be visible to a launchd/systemd daemon unless that environment is explicitly imported. Set the key in ~/.velaclaw/.env or via env.shellEnv to ensure the gateway process can read it.
If you prefer to route Perplexity searches through OpenRouter, set an OPENROUTER_API_KEY (prefix sk-or-) instead of a native Perplexity key. Velaclaw will detect the prefix and switch to the Sonar transport automatically.
The OpenRouter transport is useful if you already have an OpenRouter account and want consolidated billing across multiple providers.

Perplexity search tool

How the agent invokes Perplexity searches and interprets results.

Configuration reference

Full configuration reference including plugin entries.