Claude Web Search

Search the web using Anthropic Claude models with the web_search tool.

Overview

Claude Web Search uses the Anthropic Messages API (POST /v1/messages) with the web_search_20250305 tool to perform grounded web searches. Claude searches the web for relevant information and returns a synthesized answer with source citations. The response includes text blocks for the answer and web_search_tool_result blocks containing search result URLs, titles, and snippets. Returns the response text along with an array of source objects.

Category: AI
Tool Name: claude_web_search
Version: 1

Appearance: Icon: anthropic | Color: #d4a574

Node Type

Action — processes input items and produces output

Input / Output

Direction	Port(s)
Input	Input
Output	Output, Error

Credentials

This tool requires Anthropic credentials. See the Credentials Guide for setup instructions.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Model	options	No	Claude Sonnet	The Claude model to use for web search. Always uses the latest version (auto-updated).
				Options: Claude Opus (most capable — complex research and multi-step reasoning), Claude Sonnet (balanced — strong quality at lower cost and latency), Claude Haiku (fastest — simple lookups and high-volume queries). Each option tracks the current release of its tier, so the underlying model ID updates without any change to your node.
System Prompt	string	No	—	Optional system prompt to set the model’s behavior and context. Leave empty for default behavior. Supports expressions.
User Message	string	Yes	—	The search query or prompt to send to Claude. Falls back to item.message or item.prompt if empty. Supports expressions like {{ $json.query }}.
Options	collection	No	{}	Advanced generation and output settings.
— Max Tokens	number	No	4096	Maximum number of tokens to generate in the response.
— Temperature	number	No	1	Sampling temperature (0-1). Lower values are more deterministic, higher values more creative.
— Response Field Name	string	No	response	The output field name where the response text will be stored.
Include Input	boolean	No	false	Whether to include the original input item fields in the output alongside the response.
Max Concurrency	number	No	10	Maximum number of items to process concurrently.

Output Data

One search per input item, and one output item per input item. The synthesized answer lands on the field named by Response Field Name (response by default) and the sources Claude consulted land on sources. Binary data on the input item is forwarded unchanged, and with Include Input on the original item fields are merged in alongside the result.

{
  "response": "The synthesized, web-grounded answer",
  "sources": [
    { "url": "https://example.com/article", "title": "Article title", "snippet": "the matched passage" }
  ],
  "model": "claude-...",
  "usage": { "input_tokens": 940, "output_tokens": 512 },
  "stopReason": "end_turn"
}

• sources is an empty array when the model answered without running a search.
• model is the model that actually answered, as reported by Anthropic.
• usage is the token accounting Anthropic returned for the call.
• stopReason says why generation stopped — for example end_turn (finished naturally) or max_tokens (hit the Max Tokens cap).

Reference the result downstream by expression, e.g. {{ $json.response }} or {{ $json.sources }}.

Usage Examples

• Search the web for current information using Claude
• Research a topic with source citations via Claude web search
• Find the latest news about a company or technology
• Get up-to-date answers grounded in web sources
• Lookup recent events and return source URLs

Example Configuration

Minimal — one grounded lookup per item:

{
  "type": "claude_web_search",
  "parameters": {
    "userMessage": "What are the latest advancements in quantum computing?"
  }
}

Research with a system prompt and a named output field:

{
  "type": "claude_web_search",
  "parameters": {
    "systemPrompt": "You are a professional research analyst. Provide thorough, cited summaries.",
    "userMessage": "Summarize recent regulatory changes affecting AI companies in the EU.",
    "includeInput": true,
    "maxConcurrency": 5,
    "options": {
      "maxTokens": 8192,
      "temperature": 0.3,
      "responseFieldName": "researchSummary"
    }
  }
}

Batch fact-checking a claim carried on each item:

{
  "type": "claude_web_search",
  "parameters": {
    "systemPrompt": "Verify whether the following claim is accurate based on current web sources. Reply TRUE or FALSE followed by a short explanation.",
    "userMessage": "{{ $json.claim }}",
    "includeInput": true,
    "maxConcurrency": 10,
    "options": {
      "maxTokens": 256,
      "temperature": 0,
      "responseFieldName": "verificationResult"
    }
  }
}

Error Handling

Mode	Behavior
stop	Halts workflow on first error
continue	Skips failed items, passes successful ones through
errorPort	Routes failed items to Error output port

Tips

Claude Web Search queries the live web using the Anthropic Messages API with the web_search_20250305 tool to retrieve grounded, up-to-date information. Use this tool when a workflow requires current information beyond a model training cutoff, such as breaking news, live pricing, or recent events. It produces a synthesized response text and an array of source objects, each containing a URL, title, and snippet from the retrieved search results.