Search

A search robot searches the web (with DuckDuckGo) and returns the results. It can also open each result and scrape its content, so you get search plus page content in one step.

const robot = await maxun.search('AI news', 'AI model releases', { timeRange: 'week' });

const result = await robot.run();

for (const item of result.searchData['Search Results'].results) {
  console.log(item.title, item.url);
}

Options

Option	Default	Description
mode	'discover'	'discover' returns titles, URLs and snippets. 'scrape' also opens every result and scrapes it
limit	10	Number of results
timeRange	any time	Only results from the last 'day', 'week', 'month' or 'year'
formats	['markdown']	In scrape mode, what to capture from each result: markdown, html, text, links, summary, screenshot-visible, screenshot-fullpage

Search modes

Discover

The default. Fast: returns the search results themselves, without visiting the pages.

const robot = await maxun.search('Scraping tools', 'open source web scraping tools', {
  limit: 20,
});

const result = await robot.run();

for (const item of result.searchData['Search Results'].results) {
  console.log(item.position, item.title);
  console.log(item.url);
  console.log(item.description);
}

Scrape

Pass mode: 'scrape' to open every result and get its content in the formats you choose.

const robot = await maxun.search('Scraping guides', 'how to scrape a website with node.js', {
  mode: 'scrape',
  limit: 5,
  formats: ['markdown', 'links'],
});

const result = await robot.run();

for (const page of result.searchData['Search Results'].results) {
  console.log(page.metadata.url);
  console.log(page.markdown?.slice(0, 300));
}

Each scraped result has the formats you asked for plus metadata (url, title, ...) and searchResult (the original position and title in the search results). A result that could not be opened has an error instead.

Time range

const robot = await maxun.search("Today's AI news", 'artificial intelligence', {
  timeRange: 'day',
});

Use 'day', 'week', 'month' or 'year'. Leave it out to search any time.

Examples

Research a topic

const robot = await maxun.search('LLM agents research', 'LLM agent benchmarks', {
  mode: 'scrape',
  limit: 5,
  formats: ['summary'],
});

const result = await robot.run();
for (const page of result.searchData['Search Results'].results) {
  console.log(page.metadata.url, '→', page.summary);
}

summary uses an LLM. On self-hosted Maxun, also pass llmProvider, llmApiKey and optionally llmModel and llmBaseUrl. On Maxun Cloud, leave them out.

Daily news digest

const robot = await maxun.search('Competitor news', 'Acme Corp announcement', {
  timeRange: 'day',
});

await robot.schedule({ runEvery: 1, runEveryUnit: 'DAYS', atTimeStart: '08:00', timezone: 'Asia/Kolkata' });
await robot.addWebhook('https://your-app.com/hooks/news');

Every morning Maxun runs the search and sends the results to your webhook.

Several queries

const queries = ['AI automation tools', 'workflow automation software', 'RPA platforms'];

for (const query of queries) {
  const robot = await maxun.search(`Market: ${query}`, query, { timeRange: 'month' });
  const result = await robot.run();
  await saveToDatabase(query, result.searchData['Search Results'].results);
}

Managing search robots

const robots = await maxun.search.list();
await robot.setListLimit(25);     // change the number of results
await robot.delete();

note

Search robots are not deduplicated by name: every maxun.search(...) call creates a new robot. Reuse a robot with await maxun.robots.find(name) instead of creating it again.

See Robot Management to run, schedule and manage robots.