Troubleshooting

Do You Need a Brave API Key for Web Search?

A fast way to resolve "missing Brave key" confusion and get web research working reliably again.

This is a frequent support loop: your agent says web research failed because a Brave API key is missing, and you're not sure if you actually need one.

Short answer: some setups can use built-in search access, while others use a personal provider key override. The fix is to identify which mode your environment is in before changing anything.

Why this error happens

Your workspace was configured to use a provider key, but the key is missing/expired.
The agent attempted one search pathway and did not fall back cleanly.
A stale config/session state is surfacing an old key requirement.
The prompt requested broad research and masked a simpler tool-level failure.

5-minute diagnosis flow

1) Run a tiny canary search

Ask for one very small query first. Example:

Search the web for: "OpenClaw gateway status command". Return 3 results with title + URL only.

If this works, search access is available. Your earlier failure was likely scope or tool-routing related, not a hard key block.

2) If canary fails, capture exact error text

Don't paraphrase. Copy the exact message (including provider name, status code, and any "key missing" text).

3) Check if your environment expects a personal key

If your workspace intentionally uses a Brave/provider override, missing key errors are expected until that key is valid.

If your environment should use built-in search, this points to config drift or a transient runtime issue.

4) Retry with a focused request

Large "research everything" prompts fail more often. Retry with one source, one question, and a strict output format.

5) Escalate with evidence (if still broken)

Send a clean support packet (template below) instead of retrying in loops.

Prompt pattern that avoids false failures

High-failure pattern

Research everything about [topic] and give me a complete strategy.

Low-failure pattern

Run one web search query: "[topic] best practices 2026". Return exactly: 1) Top 5 URLs 2) One-sentence summary per URL 3) Confidence: low/medium/high

Avoid thrash: repeated retries with the same broad prompt usually add noise. Use one canary, then one focused retry, then escalate with evidence.

Support packet (copy/paste)

Web search issue report - Channel/surface: [Discord DM / server / dashboard] - Exact error text: [paste full text] - Canary query used: [paste prompt] - Canary result: [worked / failed] - Time + timezone: [e.g., 2026-04-06 00:50 UTC] - Model in use (if known): [model id] - What I already tried: [1-2 bullets]

When a personal Brave key is actually needed

Your org/workspace explicitly standardized on Brave provider credentials.
You need provider-specific behavior not available through default search tooling.
Your admin configured policies that require explicit external provider auth.

Bottom line: treat "missing Brave key" as a routing/config signal, not an automatic hard stop. Prove search with a tiny canary first, then adjust config only if evidence says you should.