--- name: nimble-web-search description: > Real-time web intelligence powered by Nimble Search API. Perform intelligent web searches with 8 specialized focus modes (general, coding, news, academic, shopping, social, geo, location). This skill provides real-time search results when you need to search the web, find current information, discover URLs, research topics, or gather up-to-date data. Use when: searching for information, finding recent news, looking up academic papers, searching for coding examples, finding shopping results, discovering social media posts, researching topics, or getting latest real-time data. license: MIT metadata: version: "0.1.0" author: Nimbleway repository: https://github.com/Nimbleway/agent-skills ---

Nimble Web Search

Real-time web intelligence using Nimble Search API with specialized focus modes and AI-powered result synthesis.

Prerequisites

Nimble API Key Required - Get your key at https://www.nimbleway.com/

Configuration

Set the NIMBLE_API_KEY environment variable using your platform's method:

Claude Code:

// ~/.claude/settings.json
{
  "env": {
    "NIMBLE_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
  }
}

VS Code/GitHub Copilot:

• Add to .github/skills/ directory in your repository
• Or use GitHub Actions secrets for the copilot environment

Shell/Terminal:

export NIMBLE_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Any Platform: The skill checks for the NIMBLE_API_KEY environment variable regardless of how you set it.

API Key Validation

IMPORTANT: Before making any search request, verify the API key is configured:

# Check if API key is set
if [ -z "$NIMBLE_API_KEY" ]; then
  echo "❌ Error: NIMBLE_API_KEY not configured"
  echo ""
  echo "Get your API key: https://www.nimbleway.com/"
  echo ""
  echo "Configure using your platform's method:"
  echo "- Claude Code: Add to ~/.claude/settings.json"
  echo "- GitHub Copilot: Use GitHub Actions secrets"
  echo "- Shell: export NIMBLE_API_KEY=\"your-key\""
  echo ""
  echo "Do NOT fall back to other search tools - guide the user to configure first."
  exit 1
fi

Overview

Nimble Search provides real-time web intelligence with 8 specialized focus modes optimized for different types of queries. Get instant access to current web data with AI-powered answer generation, deep content extraction, URL discovery, and smart filtering by domain and date.

IMPORTANT: Always Specify These Parameters

When using this skill, always explicitly set the following parameters in your requests:

• deep_search: Default to false for 5-10x faster responses

- Use false (FAST MODE - 1-3 seconds): For 95% of use cases - URL discovery, research, comparisons, answer generation - Use true (DEEP MODE - 5-15 seconds): Only when you specifically need full page content extracted for archiving or detailed analysis

• focus: Default to "general" for broad searches

- Change to specific mode (coding, news, academic, shopping, social, geo, location) for targeted results

• max_results: Default to 10 - Balanced speed and coverage

Performance Awareness: By explicitly setting deep_search: false, you're choosing fast mode and should expect results in 1-3 seconds. If you set deep_search: true, expect 5-15 seconds response time.

Quick Start

Use the wrapper script for the simplest experience:

# ALWAYS specify deep_search explicitly
./scripts/search.sh '{
  "query": "React hooks",
  "deep_search": false
}'

The script automatically handles authentication, tracking headers, and output formatting.

When to Use Each Mode

Use deep_search: false (FAST MODE - 1-3 seconds) - Default for 95% of cases:

• ✅ Finding URLs and discovering resources
• ✅ Research and topic exploration
• ✅ Answer generation and summaries
• ✅ Product comparisons
• ✅ News monitoring
• ✅ Any time you DON'T need full article text

Use deep_search: true (DEEP MODE - 5-15 seconds) - Only when specifically needed:

• 📄 Archiving full article content
• 📄 Extracting complete documentation
• 📄 Building text datasets
• 📄 Processing full page content for analysis

Decision Rule: If you're not sure, use deep_search: false. You can always re-run with true if needed.

Core Capabilities

Focus Modes

Choose the appropriate focus mode based on your query type:

1. general - Default mode for broad web searches
2. coding - Real-time access to technical documentation, code examples, programming resources
3. news - Real-time news articles, current events, breaking stories
4. academic - Research papers, scholarly articles, academic resources
5. shopping - Real-time product searches, e-commerce results, price comparisons
6. social - Real-time social media posts, discussions, trending community content
7. geo - Location-based searches, geographic information
8. location - Local business searches, place-specific queries

Search Features

LLM Answer Generation

• Request AI-generated answers synthesized from search results
• Powered by Claude for high-quality summaries
• Include citations to source URLs
• Best for: Research questions, topic overviews, comparative analysis

URL Discovery

• Extract 1-20 most relevant URLs for a query
• Useful for building reading lists and reference collections
• Returns URLs with titles and descriptions
• Best for: Resource gathering, link building, research preparation

Deep Content Extraction

• Default (Recommended): deep_search=false - Fastest response, returns titles, descriptions, and URLs
• Optional: deep_search=true - Slower, extracts full page content
• Important: Most use cases work perfectly with deep_search=false (the default)
• Available formats when deep_search=true: markdown, plain_text, simplified_html
• Only enable deep search for: Detailed content analysis, archiving, or comprehensive text extraction needs

Domain Filtering

• Include specific domains (e.g., github.com, stackoverflow.com)
• Exclude domains to remove unwanted sources
• Combine multiple domains for focused searches
• Best for: Targeted research, brand monitoring, competitive analysis

Time Filtering

• Recommended: Use time_range for real-time recency filtering (hour, day, week, month, year)
• Alternative: Use start_date/end_date for precise date ranges (YYYY-MM-DD)
• Note: time_range and date filters are mutually exclusive
• Best for: Real-time news monitoring, recent developments, temporal analysis

Usage Patterns

All examples below use the ./scripts/search.sh wrapper for simplicity. For raw API usage, see the API Integration section.

Basic Search

Quick search in fast mode (ALWAYS specify deep_search explicitly):

./scripts/search.sh '{
  "query": "React Server Components tutorial",
  "deep_search": false
}'

For technical content, specify coding focus (still fast mode):

./scripts/search.sh '{
  "query": "React Server Components tutorial",
  "focus": "coding",
  "deep_search": false
}'

Research with AI Summary

Get synthesized insights from multiple sources (fast mode works great with answer generation):

./scripts/search.sh '{
  "query": "impact of AI on software development 2026",
  "deep_search": false,
  "include_answer": true
}'

Domain-Specific Search

Target specific authoritative sources (fast mode):

./scripts/search.sh '{
  "query": "async await patterns",
  "focus": "coding",
  "deep_search": false,
  "include_domains": ["github.com", "stackoverflow.com", "dev.to"],
  "max_results": 8
}'

Real-Time News Monitoring

Track current events and breaking news as they happen (fast mode):

...