Web access and related tools

Parent: Tools and workspace.

Web tools let the agent search the public web and fetch pages, files, GitHub targets, and PDFs without stuffing every full body into the prompt. Small results stay inline. Larger or multi-target bodies land in a session sidecar under a responseId, and get_search_content pulls them back by exact selectors from the prior tool result.

Do not open web-access cache directories with read_file. Use get_search_content with the returned responseId.

Tools

Tool	Role
web_search	Search the web. Returns a short summary and a responseId.
fetch_content	Fetch one or more URLs, local paths, GitHub targets, PDFs, or video targets.
get_search_content	Read stored snippets or bodies from a prior web_search or fetch_content call.

web_search

• Prefers provider-hosted search when the active chat path supports it and hosted search is on.
• Otherwise uses the configured client backup (auto, openai, exa, brave, or disabled).
• Stores snippets by default under the returned responseId.
• Stores full source pages only when includeContent succeeds and the provider returned fetchable URLs.
• The summary stays inline. Call get_search_content for stored snippets or pages.

fetch_content

Accepts url or urls, plus optional prompt, timestamp, frames, and forceClone.

Target	Behavior
http / https page	Fetch text under SSRF rules. PDFs use the shared document extractor.
Local path	Read through the workspace; documents extract the same way as read_file.
GitHub repo, tree, file, or commit	Uses the GitHub API by default. Set forceClone to clone a repo, tree, or file URL locally instead (not commit URLs).
YouTube or local video	Optional video path. timestamp is a point or range such as 23:41 or 23:41-25:00. frames defaults to 6 and clamps to 1–12.

A single successful target returns readable content inline when it fits the tool output limit. Oversized bodies and multi-target results keep a responseId and instruct the agent to call get_search_content.

get_search_content

Requires responseId (32 lowercase hex characters). Optional selectors must match the prior result exactly:

Selector	Meaning
(none besides responseId)	Default stored payload for that id
url / urlIndex	Exact URL or index from the prior result
query / queryIndex	Exact original web_search query or fetch_content prompt, or its index

query is not a free-text keyword search over page bodies. Unknown selectors fail with the available selectors listed.

Storage

Full bodies live as sidecar blobs, not in the session transcript:

1. Active session web/ directory when bound
2. Otherwise a process data-dir fallback
3. Older flat transcripts may still use a legacy *.web/ companion beside the transcript file

Cache files are private to Rho. They are available only while the cache entry exists. If a responseId is unknown, re-run web_search or fetch_content for the original query or URL.

Network safety

HTTP and HTTPS fetches resolve the host first and connect only to addresses that passed the check. Private, loopback, link-local, and other non-global addresses are refused by default. localhost and *.localhost are blocked by name. Redirects are not followed blindly; each hop must pass the same checks.

Set RHO_SSRF_ALLOW_RANGES to a comma-separated list of CIDRs only when a TUN or fake-IP proxy requires it, for example 198.18.0.0/15. Do not open all private space for ordinary use.

Provider-hosted X Search

When the active model provider is xAI, Rho attaches xAI's hosted x_search tool on every model turn. That tool searches X (x.com) posts, users, and threads server-side. It is separate from client web_search:

• Not part of the agent tool allowlist
• Still present when client tools are restricted or empty, while the session uses xAI
• Added on the next turn after a switch to xAI, removed when the session leaves xAI
• Activity streams as typed HostedToolActivity events with name: "x_search"

Details: xAI provider.

Related tools

These are not web-access tools, but older notes mixed them into this page:

Tool	Where to read
advisor	Advisor mode
rho	Read-only harness diagnostics; action reference lives in the rho-diagnostics skill
workflow_command	Host-only workflow process tool; see workflow runtime

Related

• Documents and images - PDF and Office extraction used by fetch_content
• Web search config - hosted vs backup backends
• Tool output limit - inline size before collapse or responseId handoff