Search

What it does

When your agent uses it

• The user wants SERP results
• Needs URLs to feed into scraping
• Wants semantic web discovery with optional page content
• Wants structured data from a known platform

Example prompts

• “/search”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1JSON parses cleanly: jq . returns 0.
2. 2Result array non-empty — if empty, the query is legitimately zero-result; relax the query and re-run. Don't claim success on empty results…
3. 3Required fields present
4. 4For discover --include-content: no block-page signatures in the content field (same list as scrape, case-insensitive)
5. 5Geo sanity: if the user expected country-specific results, inspect TLDs / languages of top results. If mis-localized, re-run with explicit…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 81f51af. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • jq
  • just

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Search loads about 1.5k tokens when it runs, and up to ~4.3k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 121 tokens; SKILL.md has 508 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~121

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.5k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~4.3k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from brightdata/skills at commit 81f51af, republished under its MIT licence (© brightdata). 508 words, ~1,478 tokens.

name

search

description

Search the web via the Bright Data CLI — `bdata search` for Google/Bing/Yandex SERP, `bdata discover` for intent-ranked semantic results. Use when the user wants SERP results, needs URLs to feed into scraping, or wants semantic web discovery with optional page content. Hands off to `scrape` once target URLs are chosen, and to `data-feeds` when the user wants structured data from a known platform. Requires the Bright Data CLI; proactively guides install + login if missing.

if ! command -v bdata >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "bdata CLI not installed — see bright-data-best-practices/references/cli-setup.md"
elif ! bdata zones >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "bdata not authenticated — run: bdata login  (or: bdata login --device for SSH)"
fi

# Google SERP, structured JSON
bdata search "site:example.com privacy policy" --engine google --json --pretty

# Localized Bing (German results, German language)
bdata search "datenschutz" --engine bing --country de --language de --json

# Second page of results (0-indexed)
bdata search "machine learning papers" --page 1 --json

# Mobile SERP (rankings differ from desktop)
bdata search "best coffee shops" --device mobile --json

# News vertical
bdata search "openai" --type news --json --pretty

# Intent-ranked discovery
bdata discover "enterprise LLM platforms" \
    --intent "vendor pages with pricing" \
    --num-results 15 --json

# Discovery with page content in markdown
bdata discover "webhook best practices" \
    --include-content --num-results 10 -o results.json

# Date-filtered discovery
bdata discover "react server components" \
    --start-date 2025-01-01 --end-date 2025-12-31 --num-results 20

© brightdata, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 3 other files (references) in skills/search of brightdata/skills.

• SKILL.md
• references/examples.md
• references/flags.md
• references/patterns.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 81f51af