Search Tool
A tool that lets the agent query the open web and read back current results.
Think of it like
Handing the model a search engine and letting it type its own queries, then skim the hits.
Example
Asked about a news event past its training cutoff, the agent runs a web search, reads the top results, and answers from them.
How it actually works
A search tool breaks the model out of its frozen training data by fetching live information, which is essential for anything recent or fast-changing. The agent has to craft good queries, judge which results to trust, and synthesize across them — all fallible steps. It also opens a door for manipulation, since a malicious result can carry instructions the model might wrongly follow.
For product teams
What keeps an agent’s answers current instead of stuck at its training cutoff.
For engineers
A tool issuing web-search queries and returning ranked results for the model to read and synthesize.
Related
- Retrieval Tool — The internal-docs counterpart.
- Hallucination — The stale-knowledge problem it fixes.
- Browser Agent — The agent that leans on it heavily.
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