search-and-scrapelisted

# Search & Scrape Routing Pick the tool that fits the job. Do not reflexively use one tool for everything. The two tables below are the decision logic. ## SEARCH — finding information on the web | Situation | Tool | Why | |---|---|---| | **Default** — facts, news, "what is X", finding a URL, most lookups | **parallel-search** (`web_search`/`web_fetch`) | Cheap (effectively unlimited here), fast, LLM-optimized excerpts. Handles ~90% of searches. | | "Find pages **like** this", discovery by **meaning** not keywords, niche/technical sources, specific entity pages (papers, company/people pages), "find similar / find more like" | **Exa** (`web_search_exa`) | Neural/semantic search. Wins when keyword search returns junk or you want conceptual matches. Free tier is generous; content bundled with results. | | Need a **synthesized, cited answer** (not a list of links), multi-hop factual question | **Perplexity** `perplexity_ask` | Returns an answer with citations in one shot. | | **Deep research report** — multi-source, comprehensive, time OK to spend 30s+ | **Perplexity** `perplexity_research` | Heaviest/most expensive; reserve for genuine deep dives. | | Step-by-step analytical reasoning over web facts | **Perplexity** `perplexity_reason` | | **Don't:** use `perplexity_search` (raw links) — parallel-search already returns links cheaper. Don't burn `perplexity_research` credits on questions `perplexity_ask` or parallel-search can answer. Don't reach for Exa when a plain keyword s