web-researcher

NoteMD Pro - Web Research

Overview

This feature researches topics using web search providers and provides summarized context. It supports both Tavily (API-based) and DuckDuckGo (scraper-based) providers.

When to Use

• Research before writing: Gather context for content generation
• Summarize topics: Get overview of any subject
• Fact-checking: Verify information from web sources
• Literature review: Collect information from multiple sources

Function Call Chain

_performResearch (searchUtils.ts)
├── SearchManager.getProvider(settings)
│   ├── TavilyProvider (if searchProvider='tavily')
│   └── DuckDuckGoProvider (if searchProvider='duckduckgo')
├── provider.search(query, settings)
│   └── Returns SearchResult[]
├── fetchContentFromUrl(url)  [For DuckDuckGo only]
│   └── requestUrl({url, method: 'GET'})
│   └── Extract text from HTML
├── Combine research context
└── Return combined context string

Search Providers

Tavily Provider

• API-based search (requires API key)
• Returns snippets/summaries
• Faster, more reliable
• Configuration: tavilyApiKey, tavilyMaxResults, tavilySearchDepth

DuckDuckGo Provider

• Web scraping (no API key needed)
• Returns URLs, fetches full content
• More results, slower
• Configuration: ddgMaxResults, ddgFetchTimeout

Key Functions (from searchUtils.ts)

_performResearch

Performs web research for a topic and returns combined context.

export async function _performResearch(
  settings: NotemdSettings,
  topic: string,
  progressReporter: ProgressReporter,
): Promise<string | null>;

fetchContentFromUrl

Fetches content from a URL and extracts text.

export async function fetchContentFromUrl(
  url: string,
  progressReporter: ProgressReporter,
  debugMode?: boolean,
): Promise<string>;
// Returns extracted text or error message

SearchManager (search/SearchManager.ts)

Factory for getting search provider.

export class SearchManager {
  static getProvider(settings: NotemdSettings): SearchProvider;
  // Returns TavilyProvider or DuckDuckGoProvider
}