Your knowledge base is good. But it was last updated at a specific point in time. The moment something changes - a policy, a price, a product release, an external event your users are asking about - your agent is working with outdated information and has no way to fill the gap.

A user asks your agent about a recent change to an integration your product supports. The change happened two weeks ago. Your knowledge base has not been updated yet. Without web search, your agent either gives the old answer or says it does not know. With web search enabled, it searches in real time and returns the current answer from the source.

Your sources handle what you have documented. The web handles everything that has changed since you last updated them - and everything your users ask about that you never thought to write down.

In this article, you'll learn:

• What Web Search does and when to use it
• How to set it up
• How to write a good trigger for web search
• What to watch out for

What Web Search Does

When Web Search is active and the trigger conditions are met, your agent performs a live web search during the conversation and uses the results to form its response. The user gets an up-to-date answer without your agent making up information or admitting it doesn't know.

Use Web Search when:

• Users ask about current events, recent news, or time-sensitive information
• Your knowledge sources don't cover a topic the user is asking about
• You want your agent to have a fallback for questions outside its documented scope

How to Set Up Web Search

1. Go to the Actions tab.
2. Click + Create Action.
3. In the Create an Action modal, scroll to the Advanced section and click Add Web Search.

You'll land on the New Action configuration page. Fill in each section:

Trigger

Write instructions for when your agent should search the web.

"Use when the user asks a question that isn't answered by the available knowledge sources, or when they ask about recent news, current events, or up-to-date information."

Response Handling

Choose how the search results are presented:

• Text: The agent summarizes the search results in a natural response. Recommended.
• Card: Displays results in a structured format.
• Link: Shows a direct link.

Toggle on Custom Response Instructions if you want to control how the agent uses search results:

“Summarize the most relevant result in 2–3 sentences. Always mention that the information comes from the web and may change. Include a source link where possible.”

Settings

• Action Name: Default is "Web Search" - rename if you have multiple search actions.
• Available Channels: Chat, Email, or both.
• Trigger Limitation: Set a limit if you want to control how often web search runs per session.

Click Create Web Search when done.

What to Watch Out For

Web search introduces real-time information that you haven't reviewed or approved. A few things to keep in mind:

• Accuracy isn't guaranteed. Web search results can be outdated, incorrect, or from low-quality sources. Use Custom Response Instructions to tell your agent to present web results with appropriate caveats.
• It's a fallback, not a replacement. Web search works best as a last resort when your sources don't have the answer - not as a substitute for building good knowledge sources.
• Trigger specificity matters. A vague trigger like "use when you don't know the answer" may cause your agent to search the web for questions your sources could answer perfectly well. Be precise.

Best Practices

• Write your trigger to fire after your sources have been checked - phrase it as a fallback: "Use when the available sources don't contain a relevant answer."
• Use Custom Response Instructions to tell your agent to mention that the answer comes from the web - this sets appropriate expectations for the user.
• Set a Trigger Limitation if you're concerned about web search running too frequently and potentially introducing unreliable information into conversations.
• Combine Web Search with strong knowledge sources. The goal is for sources to answer 90%+ of questions, with web search covering the edge cases.