/bx

bx — Brave Search CLI

Use bx for all web searches. Run bx "query" as the default — it returns pre-extracted, token-budgeted web content ready for use. Use bx answers for synthesized explanations or bx web for traditional search results. If bx is not found, install it: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/brave/brave-search-cli/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Requires: Brave Search API Key + bx binary

Plans: Different subcommands may require different plans. See https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/subscriptions/subscribe

Quick Start

# Install (macOS/Linux)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/brave/brave-search-cli/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

# Configure API key (get one at https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com)
bx config set-key              # interactive (avoids shell history)
# or: export BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY=YOUR_KEY

# Search (default = bx context "query")
bx "your search query"

When to Use Which Command

Commands

Response Shapes

bx "query" (context — default, recommended)

{
  "grounding": {
    "generic": [
      { "url": "...", "title": "...", "snippets": ["extracted content...", "..."] }
    ]
  },
  "sources": {
    "https://example.com": { "title": "...", "hostname": "...", "age": ["...", "2025-01-15", "392 days ago"] }
  }
}

bx answers "query" --no-stream (single JSON response)

{"choices": [{"message": {"content": "Full answer text..."}}]}

bx answers "query" (streaming — default, one JSON chunk per line)

{"choices": [{"delta": {"content": "chunk"}}]}

bx web "query" (full search results)

{
  "web": { "results": [{"title": "...", "url": "...", "description": "..."}] },
  "news": { "results": [...] },
  "videos": { "results": [...] },
  "discussions": { "results": [...] }
}

Token Budget Control

Control output size for context (the default command):

bx "topic" --max-tokens 4096 --max-tokens-per-url 1024 --max-urls 5 --threshold strict

Goggles — Custom Ranking

Goggles let you control which sources appear in results. Boost official docs, suppress SEO spam, or build focused search scopes. No other search tool offers this. Supported on context, web, and news.

Domain Shortcuts

# Allowlist — only results from these domains
bx "rust axum" --include-site docs.rs --include-site github.com

# Blocklist — exclude specific domains
bx "python tutorial" --exclude-site example.com

--include-site, --exclude-site, and --goggles are mutually exclusive.

Inline Rules

# Boost official docs, demote blog posts
bx "axum middleware tower" \
  --goggles '$boost=5,site=docs.rs
$boost=3,site=github.com
/docs/$boost=5
/blog/$downrank=3' --max-tokens 4096

# Allowlist mode — only include matched sites
bx "Python asyncio patterns" \
  --goggles '$discard
$boost,site=docs.python.org
$boost,site=peps.python.org'

DSL Quick Reference

Separate rules with newlines. Full DSL: goggles-quickstart.

Piping Rules via Stdin

echo '$boost=5,site=docs.rs
$boost=5,site=crates.io
$boost=3,site=github.com' | bx "axum middleware" --goggles @- --max-tokens 4096

Use @/path/to/file to reuse a goggle across queries.

Agent Workflow Examples

Debugging an error:

bx "Python TypeError cannot unpack non-iterable NoneType" --max-tokens 4096

Corrective RAG loop:

# 1. Broad search
bx "axum middleware authentication" --max-tokens 4096
# 2. Too general? Narrow with strict threshold
bx "axum middleware tower layer authentication example" --threshold strict --max-tokens 4096
# 3. Still need synthesis? Ask for an answer
bx answers "how to implement JWT auth middleware in axum" --enable-research

Checking for breaking changes before upgrading:

bx "Next.js 15 breaking changes migration guide" --max-tokens 8192
bx news "Next.js 15 release" --freshness pm

Non-streaming answers for programmatic use:

bx answers "compare SQLx and Diesel for Rust" --no-stream

Answers via stdin (OpenAI-compatible JSON body):

echo '{"messages":[{"role":"user","content":"what are the OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities for web APIs"}]}' | bx answers -

Exit Codes

Use Cases

• AI agents / coding assistants: One-call web search with token-budgeted, RAG-ready content — replaces search + scrape + extract
• Fact-checking: Verify claims against current web content with bx "query" --threshold strict
• Documentation lookup: Search official docs with --include-site or Goggles domain boosting
• Research: Deep multi-source research with bx answers "topic" --enable-research
• Debugging: Search for error messages and stack traces directly
• News monitoring: Track topics with bx news "query" --freshness pd
• Local search: Find businesses and places with bx places "query" --location "city"

Notes

• All output is JSON to stdout; errors go to stderr
• Global flags: --api-key KEY, --timeout SECS (default 30), --extra KEY=VALUE (repeatable, adds arbitrary API parameters)
• Location awareness: context and web support --lat, --long, --city, --state, --state-name, --loc-country, --postal-code, --timezone
• Research mode: bx answers --enable-research can take up to 5 minutes; set client timeout accordingly
• Help: bx --help for all commands; bx <command> --help for per-command flags