web-tools

Part of the LM Studio Agent Toolkit — five plugins for files and shell, memory, git, the web and documents. Install the others with lms get cervezagua/<plugin>.

Web search, page reading, and a real browser for LM Studio models. Search runs through your own SearXNG instance (falling back to DuckDuckGo), pages come back as clean markdown, and the browser tools drive your installed Edge or Chrome.

Tools

Tool	Parameters	What it does
`web_search`	`query`, `count?`	Titles, URLs and snippets from the configured search backend
`fetch_url`	`url`, `max_chars?`, `offset?`, `refresh?`	Downloads a page and returns its main content as markdown (Readability + Turndown), with absolute links. Also reads PDFs page by page; plain text and JSON come back as-is. `offset` continues a long document where the last call stopped. Results are cached for ten minutes unless `refresh` is set, and a redirect to another host is reported in the result. Downloads are capped at 5 MB with a 30 s timeout, and retried on temporary failures.
`browser_open`	`url`	Opens the URL in a real browser (runs JavaScript) and returns a snapshot
`browser_snapshot`	–	A fresh snapshot of the current page
`browser_click`	`ref`	Clicks element `[ref]` from the latest snapshot, then returns the new snapshot
`browser_type`	`ref`, `text`, `submit?`	Fills an input or textarea (or picks a `<select>` option by label); `submit` presses Enter
`browser_back`	–	Goes back in history
`browser_screenshot`	`full_page?`	Saves a PNG to `<chat working directory>/screenshots/` and returns its path
`browser_close`	–	Closes the browser

A snapshot looks like this:

Only visible, enabled elements get a number. Links that open a new tab are followed automatically.

Search backends

Backend	Setup	Notes
`auto` (default)	none	Uses SearXNG at SearXNG URL if it responds; otherwise DuckDuckGo. When it falls back, the result says so.
`searxng`	a SearXNG instance with the `json` format enabled	Recommended. Private, no API key, combines results from many engines.
`duckduckgo`	none	Often answers automated requests with a bot check; the tool reports that instead of retrying or working around it.
`brave`	a Brave Search API key in the global settings

Running SearXNG

The repository's searxng/ folder sets up SearXNG in WSL (Ubuntu) as a systemd service on http://localhost:8888, which is the default SearXNG URL. For any other SearXNG instance, make sure its settings.yml contains:

Settings

Setting	Scope	Default	Notes
Search Backend	chat	auto
SearXNG URL	chat	`http://localhost:8888`
Default Search Results	chat	8	The model can ask for up to 20.
Max Page Characters	chat	15000	Applies to `fetch_url` and snapshots. Lower it for small context windows.
Browser Fallback for fetch_url	chat	on	When a fetched page has almost no text (a JavaScript-only site), render it in the browser instead.
Enable Browser Tools	chat	on	Off leaves only `web_search` and `fetch_url`.
Browser	chat	msedge	`msedge` and `chrome` use the installed browser. `chromium` needs `npx playwright install chromium` in the plugin folder.
Headless Browser	chat	on	Turn it off to watch the model use the browser.
Brave Search API Key	global	–	Stored as a protected field.

Notes

The browser has its own fresh profile: no cookies, logins or extensions from your normal browser. All chats share one browser. It stays open until the model calls browser_close or the plugin restarts.
fetch_url can reach any http(s) address your computer can, including local network services. Keep LM Studio's tool call confirmation on if that matters to you.
Pages built with JavaScript often come back nearly empty from fetch_url; the model is told to use browser_open for those.

Development

Tests live in the repository root (npm test). They start a local HTTP server and drive Edge, and never touch the internet unless you set LIVE_WEB=1. The src/shared/ files are copied from the repository's shared/ folder; edit them there.