Perplexity Search

Perplexity Search brings Perplexity's answer engine into your Claude agent, combining web retrieval with AI synthesis in a single API call. Instead of raw search results, you get a coherent answer paragraph with numbered inline citations linking to the supporting sources — the same experience as using Perplexity.ai directly, but programmable.

The skill supports multiple search modes: web (general), academic (scholar-focused), YouTube (video metadata and transcripts), Reddit (community discussions), and news (recent articles only). Choose the right mode for your context and the API routes queries to the appropriate index. Responses also include a follow-up question suggestions array, useful for building interactive research flows where your agent proactively deepens investigation.

Cost is pay-per-call via the Perplexity API — the pplx-7b-online model is the most affordable, while sonar-medium-online offers higher accuracy for complex queries. No free tier exists, so budget accordingly for high-volume workflows. This skill is particularly strong for questions requiring synthesis across many sources — product comparisons, scientific consensus summaries, historical event timelines. Pair with Summarize to further condense long Perplexity responses, or with Notion to automatically archive research sessions into your knowledge base.

Installation

clawhub install perplexity

Install: clawhub install perplexity