Serper Search

Overview

The Serper Search LOP provides direct access to Google Search results through the Serper.dev API. It supports nine search types — web, images, videos, scholar, patents, shopping, maps, reviews, and autocomplete — with localization controls for language, country, and time filtering.

Unified Search Alternative

If you need to search across multiple providers (Tavily, Brave, Exa, and Serper), consider using the Search Operator instead. This operator is ideal when you want dedicated, fine-grained control over Google Search specifically.

Agent Tool Integration

🔧 GetTool Enabled 8 tools

This operator exposes 8 tools that allow Agent and Gemini Live LOPs to perform Google searches across web, images, videos, scholar, patents, shopping, maps, and reviews.

Use the Tool Debugger operator to inspect exact tool definitions, schemas, and parameters.

When connected to an Agent LOP, the agent gains access to eight search tools (one per search type, excluding autocomplete). Each tool accepts a query string plus optional num_results, country, and language parameters. The agent can choose the appropriate search type based on the user’s request — for example, using serper_scholar_search for academic queries or serper_images_search when looking for visual references.

Tools are only exposed when a valid API key is configured. If no key is present, the operator returns an empty tool list.

Requirements

• Serper API Key: Sign up at serper.dev and obtain an API key. Pulse the Get API Key button on the API Key page to open the sign-up page in your browser.

Input/Output

Inputs

None — queries are configured via parameters or triggered by agent tool calls.

Outputs

• Output 1: A results DAT containing all search results. Each row stores the query ID, query text, search type, full JSON response, and timestamp. Use the Output DAT menu to select which internal table is wired to the output (results, related searches, map results, shopping, or search info).

Usage Examples

Setting Up Your API Key

1. On the API Key page, paste your Serper API key into the Serper API Key field.
2. The key is automatically saved to your system’s ChatTD configuration directory and persists across sessions.
3. Once saved, the field displays “API KEY LOADED” and becomes read-only.

Basic Web Search

1. On the Serper page, set Search Type to “Web Search”.
2. Enter your query in the Search Query field.
3. Pulse Execute Search.
4. Results appear in the output DAT. The Current Status field shows progress and completion.

Image and Video Search

1. Set Search Type to “Images” or “Videos”.
2. Enter your query and pulse Execute Search.
3. Results include image/video URLs, thumbnails, and metadata in the JSON output.

Scholar and Patent Research

1. Set Search Type to “Scholar” or “Patents”.
2. Enter an academic or patent query.
3. Pulse Execute Search to retrieve scholarly articles or patent records.

Maps and Reviews

1. Set Search Type to “Maps” to search for locations. Additional parameters become available: GPS Coordinates, Place ID, and Customer ID (CID).
2. Set Search Type to “Reviews” to retrieve Google reviews for a location. Use Sort Reviews By to order results by relevance, date, or rating.

Localized Search

1. Set Language Code and Country Code to target a specific locale (e.g., French / France).
2. Optionally set Location for more specific geographic targeting.
3. Use Time Filter to restrict results to the past hour, day, week, month, or year (available for web, video, and shopping searches).

Using with an Agent

1. Create an Agent LOP and connect the Serper Search operator to one of the agent’s tool inputs.
2. Ensure a valid API key is configured on the Serper Search operator.
3. The agent automatically receives eight search tools and selects the appropriate one based on context.

Best Practices

• Set sensible defaults for country and language to match your audience before connecting to an agent. The agent inherits these defaults when it does not specify overrides.
• Use Time Filter for news-sensitive queries to avoid stale results.
• Pagination: Adjust Number of Results and Page Number to retrieve more results or navigate through pages of results.
• Clear Results periodically to keep the results table manageable, especially during long sessions with many queries.

Troubleshooting

• “Serper API key is not configured”: Paste a valid API key on the API Key page. The key must be longer than 20 characters to be accepted.
• “Query empty” status: Enter a search query before pulsing Execute Search.
• No tools exposed to agent: Verify the API key is loaded (the field should show “API KEY LOADED”). Without a key, GetTool() returns an empty list.
• Parameters greyed out: Some parameters are only active for certain search types. For example, GPS Coordinates and Place ID only appear when Search Type is set to “Maps”, and Sort Reviews By only appears for “Reviews”.

Parameters

Serper

Selectresult (Selectresult) op('serper_search').par.Selectresult Int

Default:

0

Range:

0 to 1

Slider Range:

1 to 0

Autosetselect (Autosetselect) op('serper_search').par.Autosetselect Toggle

Default:

False

Search Type (Searchtype) op('serper_search').par.Searchtype Menu

Default:

search

Options:

search, images, videos, scholar, patents, shopping, maps, reviews, autocomplete

Output DAT (Outputdat) op('serper_search').par.Outputdat Menu

Default:

search_results

Options:

search_results, search_related, search_map_results, search_shopping, search_info

View (View) op('serper_search').par.View Menu

Default:

image_view

Options:

image_view, output_dat

Search Query (Query) op('serper_search').par.Query Str

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Execute Search (Search) op('serper_search').par.Search Pulse

Default:

False

Clear Results (Clear) op('serper_search').par.Clear Pulse

Default:

False

Current Status (Status) op('serper_search').par.Status Str

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Location (Location) op('serper_search').par.Location Str

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Language Code (Language) op('serper_search').par.Language Menu

Default:

en

Options:

en, es, fr, de, it, pt, nl, ru, ja, ko, zh, ar, hi, bn, pa, tr, vi, th, el, he, pl, uk, cs, sv, da, fi, no, hu, ro, id

Country Code (Country) op('serper_search').par.Country Menu

Default:

us

Options:

us, gb, ca, au, nz, fr, de, it, es, pt, nl, be, ch, at, se, no, dk, fi, is, ie, jp, kr, cn, tw, hk, sg, my, th, vn, id, in, pk, bd, np, lk, ru, ua, pl, cz, hu, gr, tr, il, ae, sa, br, mx, ar, cl, co, za, ng, ke, eg, ma

GPS Coordinates (@lat,long,zoom) (Gpscoords) op('serper_search').par.Gpscoords Str

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Time Filter (Timefilter) op('serper_search').par.Timefilter Menu

Default:

any

Options:

any, qdr:h, qdr:d, qdr:w, qdr:m, qdr:y

Place ID (Placeid) op('serper_search').par.Placeid Str

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Customer ID (CID) (Cid) op('serper_search').par.Cid Str

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Sort Reviews By (Sortby) op('serper_search').par.Sortby Menu

Default:

mostRelevant

Options:

mostRelevant, newest, highestRating, lowestRating

Number of Results (Numresults) op('serper_search').par.Numresults Int

Default:

0

Range:

1 to 100

Slider Range:

1 to 100

Page Number (Page) op('serper_search').par.Page Int

Default:

0

Range:

1 to 10

Slider Range:

1 to 10

Enable Autocorrect (Autocorrect) op('serper_search').par.Autocorrect Toggle

Default:

False

API Key

Serper API Key (Apikey) op('serper_search').par.Apikey Str

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Get API Key (Getapikey) op('serper_search').par.Getapikey Pulse

Opens serper.dev in your browser to get an API key.

Default:

False

Related Operators

• Agent
• Search