docs/providers/perplexity-provider.md
The Perplexity plugin registers a web_search provider with two transports: the
native Perplexity Search API (structured results with filters) and Perplexity
Sonar chat completions, direct or via OpenRouter (AI-synthesized answers with
citations).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Web search provider (not a model provider) |
| Auth | PERPLEXITY_API_KEY (native) or OPENROUTER_API_KEY (via OpenRouter) |
| Config path | plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.apiKey |
| Overrides | plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.baseUrl / .model |
| Get a key | perplexity.ai/settings/api |
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/perplexity-plugin
openclaw gateway restart
Or set the key directly:
```bash
openclaw config set plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.apiKey "pplx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
```
A key exported as `PERPLEXITY_API_KEY` or `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` in the Gateway
environment also works.
```bash
openclaw config set tools.web.search.provider perplexity
```
The plugin resolves transport in this order:
webSearch.baseUrl or webSearch.model set: always routes through Sonar chat completions against that endpoint, regardless of key type.| Key prefix | Transport | Features |
|---|---|---|
pplx- | Native Perplexity Search API (https://api.perplexity.ai) | Structured results, domain/language/date filters |
sk-or- | OpenRouter (https://openrouter.ai/api/v1), Sonar model | AI-synthesized answers with citations |
A configured key with any other prefix also uses the native Search API. The
chat-completions path defaults to the perplexity/sonar-pro model; override it
with plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.model.
| Filter | Description | Transport |
|---|---|---|
count | Results per search, 1-10 (default 5) | Native only |
freshness | Recency window: day, week, month, year | Both |
country | 2-letter country code (us, de, jp) | Native only |
language | ISO 639-1 language code (en, fr, zh) | Native only |
date_after / date_before | Published-date range in YYYY-MM-DD | Native only |
domain_filter | Max 20 domains; allowlist or --prefixed denylist, never mixed | Native only |
max_tokens / max_tokens_per_page | Content budget across all results / per page | Native only |
Native-only filters return a descriptive error on the chat-completions path.
freshness cannot be combined with date_after/date_before.