Troubleshooting & Known Issues

1) web_search fails for API-backed providers

• Issue: web_search works with duckduckgo, but fails with google, bing, or brave.
• Cause: Missing or invalid provider credentials.
• Fix:
• google requires GOOGLE_API_KEY and GOOGLE_CSE_ID
• bing requires BING_API_KEY
• brave requires BRAVE_API_KEY

After updating .env, restart your MCP client/host process.

2) web_ask fails to answer

• Issue: web_ask returns an error or times out.
• Cause: Ollama is not running, wrong OLLAMA_URL, or unavailable model.
• Fix:
• Ensure Ollama is running and reachable
• Verify OLLAMA_URL and OLLAMA_MODEL
• Retry after confirming local Ollama health

3) Low-quality answers from web_ask

• Issue: Answers are vague or miss key details.
• Cause: Insufficient or noisy stashed context.
• Fix:
• Stash higher-quality, relevant sources
• Use web_grep before web_ask to confirm context quality

4) DuckDuckGo returns fewer results

• Issue: Fewer results than expected with provider=duckduckgo.
• Cause: HTML endpoint variability and anti-bot response differences.
• Fix:
• Retry query with refined terms
• Use google, bing, or brave for consistent API-backed retrieval