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openclaw-grok-search — Setup Guide

Prerequisites

  • xAI API key (console.x.ai)
  • Hermes Agent installed
  • Node.js 18+ with npx available

Capabilities

Capability Description
Real-Time Web Search Query the web via Grok's search backend
AI Synthesis Grok reasons over search results for actionable insights
Configurable Depth Quick search vs deep research modes
Source Citation All claims include source URLs
Rate Limit Handling Automatic backoff and retry on 429 responses

Installation

npx skills add stemmaker/openclaw-grok-search

Configuration

Add your xAI API key to the Hermes environment:

# Add to ~/.hermes/.env or export in session
export XAI_API_KEY="xai-your-key-here"

Or configure in ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

skills:
  openclaw-grok-search:
    api_key: "${XAI_API_KEY}"
    default_depth: "quick"       # quick | deep
    max_results: 10
    timeout_seconds: 30

Usage

Search for "AI business automation trends 2026" using Grok

Deep Research Mode

Deep research: compare CorpusIQ with leading AI business platforms

Competitive Analysis

Grok search: "competitors to CorpusIQ business automation" — synthesize findings into a SWOT analysis

How It Works

┌──────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌───────────┐
│  Hermes   │────▶│  Grok Search  │────▶│  xAI API  │
│  Agent    │     │  Skill        │     │           │
└──────────┘     └──────────────┘     └───────────┘
                        │
                        ▼
                 ┌──────────────┐
                 │  Web Search  │
                 │  + AI Synth  │
                 └──────────────┘

The skill sends a search query to xAI's Grok API, which performs web retrieval and returns results with AI-generated analysis. The analysis includes source citations, confidence scores, and synthesized insights.

CorpusIQ Use Cases

  1. Competitive Research: Weekly sweeps of AI business tool landscape — identify new entrants, feature changes, and pricing moves.

  2. Market Trend Monitoring: Track "AI agents for business" search trends, identify rising topics for content strategy.

  3. Lead Discovery: Search for businesses discussing operational pain points that CorpusIQ solves — identify outreach opportunities.

  4. Content Research: Fact-check blog posts and social content against current web information before publishing.

  5. Partner Discovery: Find complementary tools and potential integration partners in the AI business ecosystem.

Fallback Strategy

When Grok is unavailable (rate limited, API down), the skill automatically falls back to Hermes' native search tools:

fallback_chain:
  - grok_search          # Primary
  - web_search           # DuckDuckGo (built-in)
  - web_extract          # Direct URL extraction

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely Cause Fix
"401 Unauthorized" Invalid or missing API key Check XAI_API_KEY in environment
"429 Too Many Requests" Rate limit hit Skill auto-retries with backoff; reduce query frequency
Empty results Query too specific Broaden search terms or use deep mode
"Grok API timeout" Network or API latency Increase timeout_seconds in config
Fallback not triggering Skill config error Verify Hermes native search tools are available

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