parallel-search — OpenClaw Plugin

Dual-engine web search plugin for OpenClaw. Runs DataForSEO (Google SERP) and Brave Search in parallel, then merges and deduplicates results.

Why?

No single search API catches everything. DataForSEO gives you Google's actual SERP (including local packs, knowledge panels). Brave has its own independent index. Running both in parallel and fusing results gives significantly better coverage — typically 30-50% more unique results than either engine alone.

Features

• Parallel execution — both engines fire simultaneously via Promise.allSettled
• Graceful degradation — if one engine fails or has no credentials, the other still returns results
• Smart deduplication — URL normalization strips www., trailing slashes, tracking params (utm_*, srsltid, gclid, fbclid, etc.)
• Source attribution — each result includes found_by: ["dataforseo", "brave"] showing which engine(s) found it
• Country mapping — accepts both full names ("France") and ISO codes ("FR"); auto-converts for each API
• Cost tracking — DataForSEO cost per query included in stats
• 15s timeout per engine (configurable via AbortController)

Installation

# Copy to OpenClaw extensions directory
cp -r parallel-search ~/.openclaw/extensions/

# Install dependency
cd ~/.openclaw/extensions/parallel-search
npm install

# Restart gateway
openclaw gateway restart
# or: systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway

Verify:

openclaw plugins list
# Should show: parallel-search | loaded

Configuration

Credentials

The plugin resolves credentials in this order:

DataForSEO:

1. Plugin config: plugins.entries.parallel-search.config.dataforseoLogin / .dataforseoPassword
2. Environment variables: DATAFORSEO_LOGIN / DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD

Brave Search:

1. Plugin config: plugins.entries.parallel-search.config.braveApiKey
2. OpenClaw core config: tools.web.search.apiKey (if you already have Brave configured)
3. Environment variable: BRAVE_API_KEY

If credentials are missing for an engine, it's silently skipped (no error).

Optional config (openclaw.json)

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      "parallel-search": {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          dataforseoLogin: "your-login@email.com",
          dataforseoPassword: "your-api-password",
          braveApiKey: "BSA...",          // optional if already in tools.web.search
          defaultLanguage: "fr",          // default: "fr"
          defaultCountry: "France",       // default: "France"
          defaultDepth: 10               // default: 10
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Tool: parallel_search

Once loaded, the agent has access to a parallel_search tool.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	✅	Search query
count	number	❌	Results per engine (1-50, default: 10)
country	string	❌	Country name or ISO code (default: "France")
language	string	❌	Language code (default: "fr")
freshness	string	❌	Brave freshness filter: pd / pw / pm / py

Output

{
  "query": "tropical wood suppliers",
  "results": [
    {
      "position": 1,
      "title": "Example Result",
      "url": "https://example.com/page",
      "description": "A relevant snippet...",
      "domain": "example.com",
      "type": "organic",
      "found_by": ["dataforseo", "brave"]
    }
  ],
  "stats": {
    "dataforseo_count": 10,
    "brave_count": 8,
    "total_unique": 15,
    "common": 3,
    "dataforseo_cost": 0.002
  }
}

Result ordering

1. DataForSEO results first (preserving Google SERP ranking)
2. Brave-only results appended after
3. Duplicates merged with found_by showing both sources

Costs

• DataForSEO: ~$0.002 per SERP query (PAYG, no subscription required)
• Brave: Free tier available (1 req/sec, 2000/month), paid plans from $5/month
• Total: A typical dual-engine search costs ~$0.002

Getting API Keys

• DataForSEO: dataforseo.com — sign up, get login + password, minimum deposit $10
• Brave Search: brave.com/search/api — free tier or paid plans

License

MIT