Web Search

Web Search allows agents to search the web for up-to-date information. This tool enables agents to answer questions about current events, find documentation, and access information beyond their training data.

Note

Web Search availability depends on the underlying agent provider. See Providers Overview for provider-specific support.

The following example shows how to create an agent with the Web Search tool:

using System;
using Azure.AI.OpenAI;
using Azure.Identity;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI;
using Microsoft.Extensions.AI;

// Requires: dotnet add package Microsoft.Agents.AI.OpenAI --prerelease
var endpoint = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT")
    ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT is not set.");
var deploymentName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT_NAME") ?? "gpt-4o-mini";

// Create an agent with the web search (Bing grounding) tool
AIAgent agent = new AzureOpenAIClient(new Uri(endpoint), new AzureCliCredential())
    .GetChatClient(deploymentName)
    .AsAIAgent(
        instructions: "You are a helpful assistant that can search the web for current information.",
        tools: [new WebSearchToolDefinition()]);

Console.WriteLine(await agent.RunAsync("What is the current weather in Seattle?"));

The following example shows how to create an agent with the Web Search tool:

# Copyright (c) Microsoft. All rights reserved.

import asyncio

from agent_framework import Agent
from agent_framework.openai import OpenAIResponsesClient

"""
OpenAI Responses Client with Web Search Example

This sample demonstrates using get_web_search_tool() with OpenAI Responses Client
for direct real-time information retrieval and current data access.
"""


async def main() -> None:
    client = OpenAIResponsesClient()

    # Create web search tool with location context
    web_search_tool = client.get_web_search_tool(
        user_location={"city": "Seattle", "region": "US"},
    )

    agent = Agent(
        client=client,
        instructions="You are a helpful assistant that can search the web for current information.",
        tools=[web_search_tool],
    )

    message = "What is the current weather? Do not ask for my current location."
    stream = False
    print(f"User: {message}")

    if stream:
        print("Assistant: ", end="")
        async for chunk in agent.run(message, stream=True):
            if chunk.text:
                print(chunk.text, end="")
        print("")
    else:
        response = await agent.run(message)
        print(f"Assistant: {response}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Next steps

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